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k-12 Units

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Used to evaluate individual lessons

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Northwestern University

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Middle School - Next Generation science storylines

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This middle school unit on sound starts off with students exploring a perplexing phenomenon where sounds and voices are heard coming from a paper cup and needle as a plastic disc (a record) is spun underneath it.

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Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) Rubric

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Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) Rubric

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Used to evaluate lessons and units

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9th Grade Physical Science Curriculum Overview

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9th Grade Physical Science Curriculum Overview

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To access the whole curriculum:https://learn.concord.org/interactions
Michigan State University Interactions Curriculum (NSF Funded)

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Web Access, 9th Grade Physical Science Curriculum (full year)

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Web Access, 9th Grade Physical Science Curriculum (full year)

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Michigan State University Interactions Curriculum (NSF Funded)

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The Interactions curriculum introduces students to science as an endeavor, a process we engage in, rather than solely a set of discoveries by others. Through engaging in modeling and scientific explanation students explore curious aspects of the everyday world, discovering how the unseen world of atomic level interactions and energy transformations are responsible for much of what we observe around us.

Designed from the ground up to support the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and three dimensional learning.

For 9th grade physical or integrated science students.

Curriculum Overview

Fundamental forces, unseen yet felt in every moment of our existence, govern the interactions of matter and energy that in turn shape our lives. By understanding these forces, we create a foundation that supports doing and understanding modern sciences and technologies. Why do clothes stick together when they come out of the dryer? How is it that a tiny spark can trigger an explosion? Working from these and other questions, students start their explorations by asking their own questions and discussing what they already know. They observe phenomena, engage in hands on activities and use online simulations to collect evidence. From their evidence, they construct mental models of the forces that drive interesting phenomena and test their models by predicting further events. Learn more "

The Interactions curricular materials are provided under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. If redistributing the materials you must give appropriate credit and indicate if any changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the materials for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. As noted within the materials, some images, videos, and simulations may have different licensing, either more restrictive or more open than the CC-BY-NC-SA license.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Curricular materials are available below. Sign up for access to comprehensive teacher guides and pre-post assessments.

Featured in NSTA Video Series

Watch these eight videos to discover important strategies on the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Learn about major shifts in science instruction and the new role of the teacher.
Watch Videos

NGSS Design Badge

Awarded To: Interactions Unit 1 - Why do some clothes stick together when they come out of the dryer?
VERIFY

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Students explore how interactions of matter and energy at the atomic level explain phenomena across physics, chemistry, and biology.

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1 Year Course Developed by Metro Detroit MI Teachers

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Unit 1: The Nature of Matter - Google Drive

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HS and MS Physical Science and Biology Units: Carbon Time

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HS and MS Physical Science and Biology Units: Carbon Time

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Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy (Carbon TIME) is a program that includes publicly available teaching units

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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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Northwestern University

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High School - Next Generation science storylines

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In this first part of a two-part high school ecosystems unit, students investigate the claim that planting trees can help combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and storing carbon in wood.

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Unit 1 is physical science and all the other units are life science

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The Organism Scale units ( Animals, Plants, and Decomposers) engage students in tracing matter and energy through organisms (e.g., mealworms, lettuce plants, and bread mold). These units address the same big ideas in different contexts, focusing on the processes within an individual organism. The Carbon-transforming processes addressed in these units are photosynthesis, cellular respiration, digestion, and biosynthesis.

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The Organism Scale units ( Animals, Plants, and Decomposers) engage students in tracing matter and energy through organisms (e.g., mealworms, lettuce plants, and bread mold). These units address the same big ideas in different contexts, focusing on the processes within an individual organism. The Carbon-transforming processes addressed in these units are photosynthesis, cellular respiration, digestion, and biosynthesis.

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Carbon Time Unit 1

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This research is supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation: CCE: A Learning Progression-based System for Promoting Understanding of Carbon-transforming Processes (DRL-1020187), and Sustaining Responsive and Rigorous Teaching Based on Carbon TIME (DRL-1440988). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Unit 1 is PS and all other units are biology

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The Organism Scale units ( Animals, Plants, and Decomposers) engage students in tracing matter and energy through organisms (e.g., mealworms, lettuce plants, and bread mold). These units address the same big ideas in different contexts, focusing on the processes within an individual organism. The Carbon-transforming processes addressed in these units are photosynthesis, cellular respiration, digestion, and biosynthesis.

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The Organism Scale units ( Animals, Plants, and Decomposers) engage students in tracing matter and energy through organisms (e.g., mealworms, lettuce plants, and bread mold). These units address the same big ideas in different contexts, focusing on the processes within an individual organism. The Carbon-transforming processes addressed in these units are photosynthesis, cellular respiration, digestion, and biosynthesis.

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Full year of NGSS-aligned high school biology instruction

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Full year of NGSS-aligned high school biology instruction

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UC Davis. There is a  $23 membership fee

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The fine print about permissions and such. We have created these resources for you to use and share using the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License. However, we hope that you won't just download and dash. The real idea is that you become a member of this community.

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HS Lesson Plans, some are moving toward NGSS alignment

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HS Lesson Plans, some are moving toward NGSS alignment

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Grand Traverse Bay ISD

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K-5 Elementary Units Using the Storyline Process

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K-5 Elementary Units Using the Storyline Process

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Northwestern University

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This first-grade unit on light starts out with students exploring how many shapes they can see on different pieces of paper at various locations around their classroom when the lights are turned off.  They are surprised to find that some of the shapes are not visible in these conditions    This leads students to start wondering about other phenomena related to seeing in the dark, which in turn leads to new questions and design problems related to how they can make their room completely dark.   (PS4, ETS1)

[Under development] This second-grade unit on plant reproduction and habitats starts out with students exploring the kind of plants they find growing in different places around their school and neighborhood. Their explorations reveal some surprising places where plants are sprouting. This raises a series of questions and ideas for investigations to pursue related to why there are different plants growing in different places. (LS1, LS2, LS4, ETS1)

This fourth-grade unit on wave properties and ocean floor structures starts out with students exploring a perplexing phenomenon where hundreds of unopened bags of snack chips were found on a beach. This sparks a series of questions about where these came from and how they got to where they were found. It also leads students to generate ideas for investigations to pursue about the role of wind, currents, and waves as possible suspects that could have moved these bags from where they were lost in the ocean to where they were found on the shore. (PS4, ESS2)

In this fifth-grade unit on earth systems and on the structure and properties of matter, students investigate where the dirty water that drains out of their homes and schools goes and where the clean water they use comes from. (ESS2, ESS3, PS1, ETS1)

In this fifth-grade unit on interrelationships in ecosystems, students investigate the apparent disappearance of the body of a dead raccoon over time. Their findings lead them to uncover the role of decomposers in this process, as well as the role of decomposers in the disappearance of plant debris over time. Students ultimately track down where the materials come from that all living things need for repair and growth and where the energy comes from that they use to move and stay warm. (LS1, LS2, PS1, PS3)

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Elementary - Next Generation Science Storylines

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In this fifth-grade unit on interrelationships in ecosystems, students investigate the apparent disappearance of the body of a dead raccoon over time. Their findings lead them to uncover the role of decomposers in this process, as well as the role of decomposers in the disappearance of plant debris over time.

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Example 6th grade Lessons from MI STAR Curriculum Complete MS Units (Free at http://mi-star.mtu.edu/)

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Example 6th grade Lessons from MI STAR Curriculum Complete MS Units (Free at http://mi-star.mtu.edu/)

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Michigan Technological University

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michigan science teaching and assessment reform

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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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At this website, states are contributing 3D science lessons. You will see that the effort is being led by Georgia and Oklahoma with the other contributing states that have submitted items that have been vetted.

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FREE K-5 NGSS Aligned Units

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Status message

Dear LOR user,

Thank you for being a big part of this community. To better support the initiatives around open educational resources in the state of Michigan, all resources on the Michigan Virtual Learning Object Repository (LOR) are being moved to #GoOpen Michigan(link is external) on September 30th, 2018. During the transition, our LOR will be moved to an archived state, not allowing new user registration or new content to be added. An email with more details was sent to registered users of the LOR in September. To make use of the great resources on the platform, we encourage you to create an account and add your own new resources to the #GoOpen Michigan platform(link is external).

Phenomenal Science is a regional collaboration between the Science, Mathematics, Technology center at CMU and the Great Lakes Bay ISDs to develop K-5 Science Units through professional learning.

The units will:

Include a complete curriculum for K-5 three-dimensional science instruction

Meet the Michigan Science Standards

Be free to all educators

Integrate science and engineering practices, and English Language Arts and Mathematics

Phenomenal Science is sponsored by Michigan Virtual University®, Michigan STEM Partnership and is supported by the Great Lakes Bay ISDs.

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Phenomenal Science | Michigan Virtual LOR

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Resources, student work, etc.

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Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.

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K-12 Lesson Plans

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The NSTA Next Generation Science Standards Hub offers information, resources, news, professional learning opportunities, and expert advice in understanding and implementing the Next Generation Science Standards - NGSS

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These lesson plans are not exemplars. They are the first attempt teachers have made to try and incorporate the science and engineering practices into their current lessons.

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Directions on how to access from Oakland Schools

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Directions on how to access units, from Oakland Schools

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K-8 Lesson Plans, some are moving toward NGSS alignment

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K-8 Lesson Plans, some are moving toward NGSS alignment

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Grand Traverse Bay ISD

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K-8 Lesson Plans, some are moving toward NGSS alignment

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K-8 Lesson Plans, some are moving toward NGSS alignment

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Grand Traverse Bay ISD

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Wayne RESA Atlas Rubicon

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PEEC is an acronym for the Primary Evaluation of Essential Criteria for NGSS Instructional Materials Design (not used to evaluate individual units and lessons

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NOTE: PEEC is an archived tool. It is still posted online as it is being used by disticts and may still be the right choice for districts who have built a lot of capacity in using the EQuIP Rubic for Science that it is based on, but Achieve partnered with WestEd's K-12 Alliance and BSCS Science Learning to develop an even more robust tool for selecting instructional materials programs while also building capacity in your selection team, and planning for the implementation of the materials. The new toolkit is NextGen TIME .

PEEC is an acronym for the Primary Evaluation of Essential Criteria for NGSS Instructional Materials Design.

PEEC takes the compelling vision for science education as described in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and embodied in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and operationalizes it for two purposes:

1. to help educators determine how well instructional materials under consideration have been designed for the Framework and NGSS, and

2. to help curriculum developers construct and write science instructional materials that are designed for the Framework and NGSS.

The resource seeks to focus educators and curriculum developers on the critical innovations within the NGSS and dig deeply into materials to (1) evaluate the presence of those innovations and (2) answer the question "How thoroughly are these science instructional materials designed for the NGSS? PEEC can be used by educators to evaluate the NGSS design of textbooks as well as comprehensive science instructional materials programs designed to include different units, kits, modules, textbooks, textbook series, or web-based instructional materials, including open educational resources. PEEC enables curriculum developers to more easily create and refine instructional materials, and do so knowing that their efforts are focused on the same NGSS innovations that schools, districts, and states will be using to select their instructional materials.

Throughout PEEC, the word " designed" is intentionally used rather than "aligned." The word "designed" was chosen because it reflects the degree to which the materials were consciously planned and organized to support the NGSS. For curriculum developers, this might mean starting from scratch and building new materials, or it might mean starting with existing materials and significantly reworking them. The focus either way is ensuring that the NGSS Innovations are a foundational aspect of, and clearly visible within, instructional materials.

Download PEEC 1.1 here. Find Frequently Asked Questions about PEEC here.

PEEC was developed in a collaborative and iterative process managed by Achieve, including a public draft review in summer 2015 and small group focused review sessions thereafter. Focus group feedback was provided by the following organizations: American Association of Publishers, Council of Chief State School Officers, Council of Great City Schools, Council of State Science Supervisors, Hands on Science Partnership, K-12 Alliance, National Science Education Leadership Association, and National Science Teachers Association.

Although PEEC was explicitly designed to evaluate materials designed for the NGSS, the innovations that are part of these standards are fundamentally rooted in the Framework. This means that any states and districts that did not adopt the NGSS, but that adopted standards based on the three dimensions of the Framework, should also be able to use PEEC to evaluate their instructional materials.

PEEC Professional Learning Facilitator's Guide

PEEC Professional Learning Facilitator's Guide is intended to support districts, school educators, and states to design and deliver professional learning that can provide an understanding of the process necessary to use PEEC to evaluate science instructinoal materials programs. Read more about the Guide here.

PEEC represents the collective input, guidance, and efforts of many science educators around the country. As their work continues, subsequent versions of PEEC will build on and incorporate their experience. Educators and curriculum developers are invited to share feedback and suggestions for how to improve subsequent versions of PEEC by emailing nextgenscience@wested.org.

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PEEC for NGSS Instructional Materials Design

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NOTE: PEEC is an archived tool. It is still posted online as it is being used by disticts and may still be the right choice for districts who have built a lot of capacity in using the EQuIP Rubic for Science that it is based on, but Achieve partnered with WestEd's K-12 Alliance and BSCS Science Learning to develop an even more robust tool for selecting instructional materials programs while also building capacity in your selection team, and planning for the implementation of the materials.

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PEEC evaluates instructional material programs, not individual units or lessons

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This lesson can be used with the Lesson Screener rubric for practice. Can you see why this lesson is not really aligned?

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Start with a Bang! Isopropyl Alcohol Exothermic Combustion Demonstration

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First day of school demonstration - pour Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol) into a 5 gallon water cooler bottle and ignite for a memorable start to the school year.

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Concord Consortium

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Find your path through the Next Generation Science Standards with help from the Concord Consortium.

1. Start in the center with a core idea. What do you teach?

2. Add a science and engineering practice-or two!

3. Add a crosscutting concept.

4. You've created one path through the NGSS. Use the Concord Consortium resources available for that path below.

Practices

Asking Questions
Defining Problems

Using Models

Conducting
Investigations

Analyzing
Data

Using Mathematics &
Computational Thinking

Constructing Explanations
Designing Solutions

Arguing from
Evidence

Communicating
Information

Core Ideas
What do you teach?

Life
Sciences

Engineering &
Technology

Earth & Space
Sciences

Physical
Sciences

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns

Causation

Scale

Systems

Energy

Structure & Function

Stability & Change

Start by selecting a Core Idea.

About the Next Generation Science Standards

You can also download our
NGSS "fortune tellers" (PDF) for another fun way to find resources available for different paths.

The Next Generation Science Standards provide a framework and examples for STEM learning. Grounded in the National Academy of Science's thoughtful Framework for K-12 Science Education, these new K-12 science standards have been developed to provide students an internationally benchmarked science education, and signify a new direction for STEM education. They elevate the importance of Earth science, present engineering education as coequal with science education for the first time and emphasize a key set of Scientific and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts that should buttress all learning in these disciplines.

The NGSS hold the potential for helping focus the current national concern for improving STEM education. They will undoubtedly help bring clarity and unity to the patchwork of state standards developed throughout the standards movement in the past decades. As this occurs, innovative educational technology will be a critical component in this STEM education revolution.

The Concord Consortium and the NGSS

Our NGSS Pathfinder provides numerous examples of how the NGSS-and especially its Practices and Crosscutting Concepts-are central to our work in STEM education. Over nearly two decades, we've been demonstrating how technology can make complex concepts more approachable, underscore important crosscutting ideas and engage students in the practices of science and engineering.

Using computational models and probe-based activities, elementary students can watch biological evolution, middle school students can analyze and interpret data to understand the genetic basis of inheritance and high school and college students can argue from evidence in discussing interactions between molecules. With these technology-supported activities, students can engage in doing real science as they plan and carry out investigations, use models, analyze data and design solutions. Students also gain wide experience with crosscutting concepts-from scales in space and time to energy and systems-across domains in science, math and engineering.

More about the NGSS

© Copyright 2020 The Concord Consortium. All rights reserved.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-1044263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Find your path through the Next Generation Science Standards with help from the Concord Consortium. Start in the center with a core idea. What do you teach? Add a science and engineering practice-or two! Add a crosscutting concept. You've created one path through the NGSS. Use the Concord Consortium resources available for that path below.

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This is not free curriculum. This example is for NGSX participants.

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New Jersey Model Curriculum (K-12 NGSS) 

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New Jersey Model Curriculum (K-12 NGSS) 

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The state of New Jersey has developed a K-12 framework including unit names, projected days, performance expectations, and resources.

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Model Curriculum: Grade Six Model Curriculum Overview

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Science curriculum should be thematic with a focus on connections among and between core concepts and practices. This approach reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of science and allows for a sequential progression of skills and concepts. This supports developmentally appropriate teaching and assessments.

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University of Washington, Ambitious Science Teaching

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This curriculum plan repurposes materials found in the sound kit. It reframes the kit around an event of a singer shattering a glass with his voice. To explain this phenomenon, students gather evidence about vibrations, pitch, volume, resonance, and how sound travels to develop an explanation around how and why this phenomenon occurs.

Although lessons about musical instruments are not included in this draft, that is a relevant avenue to explore with students as many students may play instruments as part of band or orchestra. There are many experiences students bring up during this unit which are rich for productive conversations. For example, airplane noise from flying overhead, sounds of sirens or honking, how elephants communicate feeling vibrations in the ground, etc. and many other references they share from things they’ve seen, read about, or experienced. Feel free to adjust or add in additional lessons based in students’ experiences. The science ideas captured in this unit can be explored through many different contexts.

This draft is a starting place. Please feel free to make changes to the student tools within this file and to add or change activities based on the ideas your students bring up in class.

Attachments

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All-in-One Curriculum – Sound Energy Grade 4 | AST

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Fifth Grade Unit, food poisoning scenario

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Fifth Grade Unit, food poisoning scenario

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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This planning tool is a draft of a unit plan using the microworlds kit. It reframes the kit around a food poisoning scenario where students gather evidence to better understand how single celled organisms (i.e. salmonella, yeast) behave in different environmental conditions (i.e. scarce/abundant food source, cold/warm temperatures) in order to explain why a boy gets a fever after exposure to salmonella in undercooked chicken. The microworlds kit has other lessons around exploring pond water or hay infusions which could have taken us to pond context but the reason we went with a food-poisoning phenomenon is because it's relevant to students lives - food-poisoning can happen eating at restaurants and at home. Likely some students have experienced the symptoms. Also, 5th graders also have a "Body Shop" unit and the food-poisoning ties in to concepts they learn in the body shop unit as well.

This draft is a starting place. Please feel free to make changes to the student tools within this file and to add or change activities based on the ideas your students bring up in class.

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All-in-One Curriculum - Microworlds Grade 5

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This planning tool is a draft of a unit plan using the microworlds kit. It reframes the kit around a food poisoning scenario where students gather evidence to better understand how single celled organisms (i.e. salmonella, yeast) behave in different environmental conditions (i.e.

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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This curriculum references lessons found in the STC Motion & Design kit. This guide reframes this physics kit around an event of a skateboarder who experiences a "successful" jump and an "epic fail" jump. To explain this phenomenon, students gather evidence about force, motion, speed, balanced/unbalanced forces, and transfer of energy to develop an explanation around how and why this phenomenon occurs.

Lessons from this kit focus on using a cart and weights. These explorations can help students connect to the skateboarder phenomenon around issues of speed, stopping forces, starting forces, weight, gravity, friction, etc. There are many experiences students bring up during this unit which are rich for productive conversations. For example, riding bicycles, skating, being on a school bus, being in a loaded down car vs empty car, etc. and many other references they share from things they've seen, read about, or experienced. Feel free to adjust or add in additional lessons based in students' experiences. The science ideas captured in this unit can be explored through many different contexts.

This draft is a starting place. Please feel free to make changes to the student tools within this file and to add or change activities based on the ideas your students bring up in class.

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All-in-One Curriculum - Motion & Design - Grade 5

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This curriculum references lessons found in the STC Motion & Design kit. This guide reframes this physics kit around an event of a skateboarder who experiences a "successful" jump and an "epic fail" jump. To explain this phenomenon, students gather evidence about force, motion, speed, balanced/unbalanced forces, and transfer of energy to develop an explanation around how and why this phenomenon occurs.

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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UNIT GUIDE

Students investigate a phenomenon of changing amounts of daylight per day over a year. In Seattle, there is a noticeable difference for students waiting for the school bus in December where they wait in darkness, compared with April or May where it's bright. Why does the amount of daylight change over a year? This phenomenon works for many other cities in the world as well.
Simulations, readings, and videos support students in making sense of the observations and data they collect during hands-on investigations. Throughout the unit, students have multiple opportunities to represent and interpret first and second-hand data. To explain this phenomenon, students will draw up on and make connections between what they learn from this unit about the Earth's rotation, tilt, and revolution along with how directly the Sun's rays strike the Earth at certain places.
Ultimately, the model and explanation students create is of the changing-daylight phenomenon; however, knowing the big science ideas behind this phenomenon allows students to understand or explain other related events, such as the causes of seasons or why patterns in the constellations we observe at night would appear to change over the year.

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UNIT GUIDE Students investigate a phenomenon of changing amounts of daylight per day over a year. In Seattle, there is a noticeable difference for students waiting for the school bus in December where they wait in darkness, compared with April or May where it's bright. Why does the amount of daylight change over a year?

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Mystery science is a K-5 curriculum where the DCIs are the central focus of the units.  The curriculum is a good skeletal unit.  The activities are engaging, but you will need to add in the modeling, argumentation, and explanation experiences to make them more three-dimensional.

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Open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science.

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Mystery Science offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for you. Less prep, more learning.

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NGSS inspired inquiry lessons in chemistry

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New Remote Learning Lessons

Use our remote lessons, filled with videos of experiments, animations, and questions to create virtual lessons students can do at home!
View Assignments ►

Teach Science by Doing Science

Investigate the world of atoms and molecules through hands-on inquiry-based activities and molecular model animations.
View the Lessons ►

Se habla Español

View selected lessons from MSC translated into Spanish.
Ver las Lecciones ►

Recent Webinar

View our recent webinar on March 4 hosted by AACT. Learn about how to use the remote lessons and other free resources for K-8 teachers.

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Use our remote lessons, filled with videos of experiments, animations, and questions to create virtual lessons students can do at home! View Assignments ► Investigate the world of atoms and molecules through hands-on inquiry-based activities and molecular model animations. View the Lessons ► View selected lessons from MSC translated into Spanish.

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This is a growing list of resources and lessons that are being developed around the country.

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Quality Examples of Science Lessons and Units

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Quality Examples of Science Lessons and Units

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Achieve Science Peer Review Panel

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Quality Examples of Science Lessons and Units | Next Generation Science Standards

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To identify and shine a spotlight on emerging examples of quality lessons and units designed for the NGSS, Achieve launched the EQuIP Peer Review Panel for Science (PRP). NextGenScience, the former Achieve science team, continues this work, managing reviews that use the EQuIP Rubric for Science (Ver…

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Storyline for Chemistry unit (MSU PIRE Project

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Storyline for Chemistry unit (MSU PIRE Project

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Michigan State University will be releasing this curriculum in the future. Units are currently being piloted.

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Evaporation chemistry storyline March 2017.pdf

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You can search for articles by topic and Lexile level to add to your cycles of activity.  I would suggest using the search button for topic (for example, "plate tectonics").

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America’s reading comprehension crisis.

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Arizona State University Modeling Curriculum, Physics and Chemistry

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Arizona State University Modeling Curriculum, Physics and Chemistry

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Teachers must participate in PD before they can access the curriculum. AMTA is offering a web-based virtual course.

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Introduction to Modeling Spring 2018 Distance Learning (online) Dates: 15 weeks during Spring semester 2018 (exact dates TBD) Instructor: Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz, PhD, AMTA's first Senior Fellow Registration: Available on eweblife What are conceptual models? What is modeling? What is Modeling Instruction-what is it like for teachers? for students? How does it work?

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Toward High School Biology: A New Curriculum for Your Middle School Students

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Toward High School Biology: A New Curriculum for Your Middle School Students

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This new curriculum from AAAS/Project 2061 published by NSTA is not free, but if you purchase the teacher's addition, it may give you some ideas.

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Would you like to challenge your middle school students to explain a range of phenomena-from how nylon thread can form from two clear, colorless liquids to how a snake that eats only eggs can make body structures that don't look anything like an egg? Would your students enjoy building molecular models with Legos to understand how an herbicide prevents weeds from growing? If so, then Toward High School Biology: Understanding Growth in Living Things by AAAS/Project 2061 is the curriculum for you.

Developed by a team of scientists and science educators and funded by a U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences grant, Toward High School Biology was field tested extensively. Results show that students who used the unit had significant learning gains compared with students who used other materials. The unit's 19 lessons support the Next Generation Science Standards and integrate all three dimensions of science learning, with a strong emphasis on supporting students in developing evidence-based explanations. The goal of the unit is to help middle school students overcome many common conceptual difficulties and provide the foundation in biochemistry that students will need for high school biology and beyond.

Jo Ellen Roseman, director of Project 2061 (a long-term initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS]) explains, "High school biology is fairly molecular. There has to be something in middle school to give [students] the background they need for thinking about what is happening."

In the Student Edition, each chapter of the Toward High School Biology unit consists of carefully sequenced lessons and activities designed to draw upon students' prior knowledge and experiences relevant to classroom activities; support students as they investigate and make sense of phenomena and models; guide students in developing, analyzing, and critiquing explanations (e.g., of a hypothetical student, of their peers, and of those of the scientific community) in light of their experiences; provide opportunities for students to apply or extend science ideas and practices to new phenomena; and help students synthesize their ideas and reflect on changes in their thinking.

The Teacher Edition includes everything in the Student Edition, but it also is designed to provide easy access to essential background information and support needed for using the Toward High School Biology unit effectively in the classroom. Additional teacher support materials (e.g., brief video demonstrations, color images from the unit, and tutorials) are provided online. The Teacher Edition and the supplementary materials aim to provide a "big picture" sense of the unit and its goals as well as the specific information and guidance needed to teach each lesson and carry out each activity.

Learning theory and research-based evidence guided AAAS/Project 2061's development of Toward High School Biology. The unit reflects the team's understanding that students' science conceptions develop from (a) having a wide range of experiences with the natural world that can be explained by a coherent set of ideas and (b) having an opportunity to interpret and make sense of experiences in terms of those ideas.

Moreover, student understanding of the learning goals increases when students (a) observe phenomena and representations that are explicitly targeted to the learning goals and are selected to address common student difficulties and (b) are actively engaged in interpreting the phenomena and representations in light of the learning goals and their own initial ideas.

Consistent with these views, the Toward High School Biology unit supports student learning by

focusing on a coherent set of ideas and making the connections among those ideas clear,

providing information about commonly held student ideas (both troublesome ideas and ideas teaching can build on) and questions to collect information about a particular group of students' ideas and to monitor their progress,

including a variety of relevant and engaging phenomena and representations, and

including activities that foster students' sense making, such as modeling tasks, to help students relate the phenomena and representations to the science ideas and to reconcile differences between their ideas and the science ideas.

With these design principles, Toward High School Biology is sure to be an effective tool for addressing specific goals for student learning.

These books are also available as e-books: Teacher Edition and Student Edition.

This entry was posted in and tagged NSTA Press Books activity ideas, biology, middle school, NSTA Press. Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can .

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Toward High School Biology: A New Curriculum for Your Middle School Students

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Would you like to challenge your middle school students to explain a range of phenomena-from how nylon thread can form from two clear, colorless liquids to how a snake that eats only eggs can make body structures that don't look anything like an egg?

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HS Scope and Sequence Panel

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Dec 12th 2017 HS Scope and Sequence Panel

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Wanda Bryant

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Storylines Presentation

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Matthew Huffine
Lewis Center For Educational Research
Email:  mdhuffine@lcer.org

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Where are the resources that I can use to teach a course designed around the NGSSs?

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Matthew Huffine
Lewis Center For Educational Research
Email:  mdhuffine@lcer.org

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Where are the resources that I can use to design a middle school science course unit or lesson using the NGS Standards?

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Matthew Huffine
Lewis Center For Educational Research
Email:  mdhuffine@lcer.org

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© 2014-2015 IHMC

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Priority Features of NGSS Aligned Instructional MaterialsRecommendations for Publishers, Reviewers, and Educators

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Priority Features of NGSS Aligned Instructional MaterialsRecommendations for Publishers, Reviewers, and Educators

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New Visions Earth Science and Biology (Living Environment)

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New Visions Earth Science and Biology (Living Environment)

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These units use the BSCS 5E model for sequences within units. Units have an anchor phenomena and performance task. And teacher materials highlight (and color code) three dimensions within the 5E plans.

At the moment, some of the content is more middle school, than high school, so revisions are being made over the next year and units will be replaced with better ones.

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New Visions Science Curriculum - New Visions Science Curriculum

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New Visions for Public Schools provides educators free Open Educational Resources for high school science in Living Environment and Earth Science.