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Novel Engineering projects are designed around books that teachers choose, generally trade books with interesting plots, rich characters and detailed descriptions of the setting. As they read the text, students are prompted to identify problems faced by characters in the text and whether these problems are ones that might be addressed with a product or process that the students could design in the classroom. Below are examples of books that some Novel Engineering classrooms have used. Click one to view problems identified by the students and solutions designed and built by students.

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Novel Engineering projects are designed around books that teachers choose, generally trade books with interesting plots, rich characters and detailed descriptions of the setting. As they read the text, students are prompted to identify problems faced by characters in the text and whether these problems are ones that might be addressed with a product or process that the students could design in the classroom.

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Your Digital Learning Hub for ARTS INTEGRATION and STEAM HELPING TEACHERS BRING CREATIVITY BACK TO THE CLASSROOM SINCE 2010.

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The San Jose Public Library has a wonderful program open to anyone. Be sure to check it out.

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What are STEAMstacks Programs?

#STEAMstacks maker programs combine reading, showing, and making. These programs emphasize science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM).

Why did we create STEAMstacks?

Many of modern civilization's most profound developments were initiated here in San José and Silicon Valley. They were the result of someone with an idea and the ability to bring it to life. More than ever, people here are harnessing that legacy, breaking out of the role of consumer, and becoming creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

The concept of Library is expanding from a place for consumption of information and media, to a place for self-directed and peer-assisted learning, creation, invention, and entrepreneurship. Hands-on technology learning can expose disenfranchised residents to opportunities to develop skills and access the hardware and software industries that are booming around them in the Silicon Valley.

While STEAMstacks encourages local community engagement, it is also part of an international movement fostering creative, social thinking and life-long learning through making. San José Public Library intends to be a key node in that connected learning network and to incorporate its capabilities into the community's overall knowledge infrastructure.​

STEAMstacks: Upcoming Events
View more STEAMstacks events

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STEAMstacks maker programs combine reading, showing, and making. These programs emphasize science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM). Many of modern civilization's most profound developments were initiated here in San José and Silicon Valley. They were the result of someone with an idea and the ability to bring it to life.

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How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.

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Biomimicry's Surprising Lessons from Nature's Engineers

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Biomimicry's Surprising Lessons from Nature's Engineers

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Janine Benyus: Biomimicry's surprising lessons from nature's engineers

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In this inspiring talk about recent developments in biomimicry, Janine Benyus provides heartening examples of ways in which nature is already influencing the products and systems we build.

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Brings kids in grades K-12 to an Apple Retail Store for a Field Trip. Our workshops will help school-age children learn how to do fun things on a Mac or iPad

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From Stanford's d.school

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A design thinking project is a lesson-based way to explore design thinking.

/groups/k12/search/index.rss?tag=hotlist/groups/k12/search/?tag=hotWhat's HotHotListHot!?tag=hot6/groups/k12/sidebar/HotListAdded tag - hotdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 18:05:15+00:002016-06-09 18:05:15addTag14Added tag - activitydyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:57+00:002016-06-09 08:51:57addTag13Added tag - testdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:48+00:002016-06-09 08:51:48addTag12Added tag - prototypedyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:46+00:002016-06-09 08:51:46addTag11Added tag - ideatedyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:45+00:002016-06-09 08:51:45addTag10Added tag - definedyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:43+00:002016-06-09 08:51:43addTag9Added tag - empathizedyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:42+00:002016-06-09 08:51:42addTag8Added tag - stokedyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:40+00:002016-06-09 08:51:40addTag7Added tag - design thinking processdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:38+00:002016-06-09 08:51:38addTag6Added tag - resourcesdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 08:51:35+00:002016-06-09 08:51:35addTag5dyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 23:47:53+00:002016-06-06 23:47:53updated4dyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 21:53:23+00:002016-06-06 21:53:23updated3dyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 20:58:40+00:002016-06-06 20:58:40updated2First createddyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 20:58:21+00:002016-06-06 20:58:21created1wiki2016-06-06T23:47:53+00:00groups/k12/wiki/bb07fFalseResources and Tools by Stage/groups/k12/wiki/bb07f/Resources_and_Tools_by_Stage.htmlDevon Young14 updatesResources and Tools by Stage Key tools and worksheets in each step Warm-up [Download file "Stoke Deck.pdf"] Improv Toolkit for Educators, Improv Activiti...Falsedyoung2016-06-06T23:47:53+00:00Added tag - hotdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 18:04:48+00:002016-06-09 18:04:48addTag18Added tag - full-cycledyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:38+00:002016-06-09 06:21:38addTag17Added tag - designed by k12 labdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:34+00:002016-06-09 06:21:34addTag16Added tag - educator workshopdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:23+00:002016-06-09 06:21:23addTag15Added tag - 2-hourdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:18+00:002016-06-09 06:21:18addTag14Added tag - 2016dyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:08+00:002016-06-09 06:21:08addTag13Removed tag - workshopdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:02+00:002016-06-09 06:21:02removeTag12Removed tag - morning routinedyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:00+00:002016-06-09 06:21:00removeTag11Removed tag - dp0dyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:20:59+00:002016-06-09 06:20:59removeTag10Removed tag - design thinking burstdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:20:56+00:002016-06-09 06:20:56removeTag9Added tag - workshopdyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 15:58:59+00:002016-06-06 15:58:59addTag8Added tag - design thinking burstdyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 20:34:51+00:002016-05-23 20:34:51addTag7Removed tag - burstdyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 20:34:43+00:002016-05-23 20:34:43removeTag6Added tag - morning routinedyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 20:34:05+00:002016-05-23 20:34:05addTag5Added tag - dp0dyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 20:33:54+00:002016-05-23 20:33:54addTag4Added tag - burstdyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 20:33:47+00:002016-05-23 20:33:47addTag3dyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 16:46:27+00:002016-05-23 16:46:27updated2First createddyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 16:08:56+00:002016-05-23 16:08:56created1wiki2016-05-23T16:46:27+00:00groups/k12/wiki/213e5FalseDesign Thinking Burst: May 18, 2016 /groups/k12/wiki/213e5/Design_Thinking_Burst_May_18_2016_.htmlDevon Young18 updatesDesign Thinking Burst: May 18, 2016 What: An introductory experience for educators who are interested in learning about the design thinking process. When: April 28, 2016 at the d...Falsedyoung2016-05-23T16:46:27+00:00Added tag - hotdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 18:05:46+00:002016-06-09 18:05:46addTag16Added tag - full-cycledyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:22:15+00:002016-06-09 06:22:15addTag15Added tag - designed by k12 labdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:22:11+00:002016-06-09 06:22:11addTag14Added tag - educator workshopdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:22:06+00:002016-06-09 06:22:06addTag13Added tag - 2-daydyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:22:01+00:002016-06-09 06:22:01addTag12Added tag - 2016dyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:58+00:002016-06-09 06:21:58addTag11Removed tag - workshopdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:52+00:002016-06-09 06:21:52removeTag10Removed tag - discover design thinkingdyoungDevon Young2016-06-09 06:21:50+00:002016-06-09 06:21:50removeTag9Added tag - workshopdyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 15:59:14+00:002016-06-06 15:59:14addTag8Removed tag - savedyoungDevon Young2016-06-06 15:59:10+00:002016-06-06 15:59:10removeTag7Added tag - discover design thinkingdyoungDevon Young2016-05-23 21:41:41+00:002016-05-23 21:41:41addTag6Added tag - savedyoungDevon Young2016-05-16 20:35:23+00:002016-05-16 20:35:23addTag5dyoungDevon Young2016-05-13 21:14:20+00:002016-05-13 21:14:20updated4dyoungDevon Young2016-05-11 15:57:56+00:002016-05-11 15:57:56updated3dyoungDevon Young2016-05-11 03:15:39+00:002016-05-11 03:15:39updated2First createddyoungDevon Young2016-05-11 03:01:09+00:002016-05-11 03:01:09created1wiki2016-05-13T21:14:20+00:00groups/k12/wiki/7c78cFalseDiscover Design Thinking workshop: May 5-6 2016/groups/k12/wiki/7c78c/Discover_Design_Thinking_workshop_May_56_2016.htmlDevon Young16 updatesDiscover Design Thinking workshop: May 5-6 2016 Edit this page Create a new page Delete this ...Falsedyoung2016-05-13T21:14:20+00:00Added tag - hotarazAriel Raz2016-06-09 18:05:38+00:002016-06-09 18:05:38addTag13Added tag - prototypearazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:30:10+00:002016-06-09 06:30:10addTag12Added tag - full-cyclearazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:30:00+00:002016-06-09 06:30:00addTag11Added tag - grades 9-12arazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:29:55+00:002016-06-09 06:29:55addTag10Added tag - student curriculumarazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:29:51+00:002016-06-09 06:29:51addTag9Added tag - 1-weekarazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:28:21+00:002016-06-09 06:28:21addTag8Added tag - 2016arazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:28:18+00:002016-06-09 06:28:18addTag7Removed tag - student workshoparazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:28:07+00:002016-06-09 06:28:07removeTag6Removed tag - fail forwardarazAriel Raz2016-06-09 06:28:03+00:002016-06-09 06:28:03removeTag5Added tag - student workshoparazAriel Raz2016-06-06 16:37:11+00:002016-06-06 16:37:11addTag4Added tag - fail forwardarazAriel Raz2016-06-06 16:36:53+00:002016-06-06 16:36:53addTag3arazAriel Raz2016-03-14 03:01:39+00:002016-03-14 03:01:39updated2First createdarazAriel Raz2016-03-14 02:48:24+00:002016-03-14 02:48:24created1wiki2016-03-14T03:01:39+00:00groups/k12/wiki/0502dFalseMt. Vernon Presbyterian School - Fail Forward/groups/k12/wiki/0502d/Mt_Vernon_Presbyterian_School__Fail_Forward.htmlAriel Raz13 updatesMt. Vernon Presbyterian School - Fail Forward On this page you'll find resources for the one week workshop we held with Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School. The frame of the weeklong experience was...Falsearaz2016-03-14T03:01:39+00:00weblog2009-11-19T16:29:14+00:00groups/k12/weblog/56457FalseNew Riverside-Nueva partnership/groups/k12/weblog/56457/New_RiversideNueva_partnership.htmlLeticia Britos0 updatesNew Riverside-Nueva partnership The Nueva School has some exciting news to report. After the six of us (Rebecca, Megan, Keely, Kim, Anna, and I) from Nueva met Deepa and Veena fro...Falselbritos2009-11-19T16:29:14+00:00hot/groups/k12/search/index.rss?sort=modifiedDate&kind=all&sortDirection=reverse&excludePages=wiki/welcomelist/groups/k12/search/?sort=modifiedDate&kind=all&sortDirection=reverse&excludePages=wiki/welcomeRecent ChangesRecentChangesListUpdates?sort=modifiedDate&kind=all&sortDirection=reverse&excludePages=wiki/welcome0/groups/k12/sidebar/RecentChangesListmodifiedDateallRecent ChangesRecentChangesListUpdateswiki/welcomeNo recent changes.reverse5search

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The makerspace by students, for everyone. Offers free acess to cutting-edge tools and equipment in a casual, peer-driven environment.

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Best Picks for Early Childhood STEM Learning

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Best Picks for Early Childhood STEM Learning

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Best Picks for Early Childhood STEM Learning

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Get a head start on building essential STEM skills. Explore this Best Picks for Early Childhood STEM Learning Top Picks list of 29 tools curated by Common Sense Education editors to find relevant and engaging edtech solutions for your classroom.

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Awesome Earth Science Apps, Websites, and Games

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Awesome Earth Science Apps, Websites, and Games

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Awesome Earth Science Apps, Websites, and Games

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Solid science resources, from geology to weather and beyond. Explore this Awesome Earth Science Apps, Websites, and Games Top Picks list of 24 tools curated by Common Sense Education editors to find relevant and engaging edtech solutions for your classroom.

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When Art and NGSS Meet Common Core: Math & ELA

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When Art and NGSS Meet Common Core: Math & ELA

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There are a number of crossovers between Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core math, art and ELA practices. Here are a few real-world examples of each.

STEM and ELA

The first Common Core ELA technical subject standard for grades 6-8 asks that students use evidence to support analysis of science technical texts. As students are engaging in the Next Generation Science Standards, they have that opportunity. They should be able to accurately summarize text distinct from prior knowledge. Further, as students assume the role of scientist and engineer, they generate their own nonfiction text using the scientific process or engineering design process. At that point, they are within the research and summary-applying aspects of this standard.

Another Common Core ELA technical subject standard is to integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually. Thinking back to the STEM classroom, as students gather data to analyze, they have the opportunity to create line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts and pictograms, even at an early age.

In fact, there are many opportunities in the creation of infographics to engage students to express information visually in the context of the Next Generation Science Standards.

Finally, distinguishing among facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text is an ELA standard, but it is also the culminating piece of any STEM process, whether science or engineering related. This process requires students to engage in evidence-based writing. As they come back as a class to debrief, it's also an opportunity to look at what approach they are taking with their partner, compare that to their peers' work, analyze the differences, create explanations and then reason, separating fact from opinion and reasoned judgments.

STEM and Math

Overall, math presents a huge opportunity to teach across standards. Common Core math practices very closely relate to NGSS science and engineering practices, from making sense of problems and reasoning abstractly, to constructing viable arguments, modeling with mathematics and strategically using appropriate tools.

Using tools strategically is not just about using a hammer or a saw. Calculating mean, median and mode and then choosing the proper process-scientific or engineering design-to attend to precision in that process also constitutes using tools. Further, the logic side of math crosses the curriculum

easily, especially in processes where students are looking for and making use of structure as they develop efficient test procedures.

A common ELA process writing assignment in schools asks students to write the steps for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The result is that you often get students who come back with 50-step procedures that they then mimic in class...and the outcome is hardly a sandwich. The reality is that making use of structure in a procedure is also about efficiency and using recursive steps. So, you can equate it with efficient science and engineering. Take computer science as an example. The core value of computer science is software engineering. And in that, a person is not only learning a language, but also learning how to solve a problem by using that language, and then structuring the directions in a way that computers can carry out an activity using the fewest lines of code possible.

STEM and STEAM

Math and ELA cross the curriculum lines by using science and engineering practices-critical thinking skills that are developed using the STEM practices- but what about art? That crossover works as well, and we call it STEAM: science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

At its core, art is engineered communication. Take Pablo Picasso's Guernica, for example. Oftentimes when STEAM is referenced, the conversation is around aesthetics. Guernica is widely considered one of Picasso's most famous works, but it's perhaps not the most traditionally beautiful work of art, so how could it be considered his best? Because it was created by a master artist who engineered communication through it, using his critical thinking skills-STEAM skills.

Picasso created Guernica while living in exile as a reaction to and reflection of the atrocities committed at Guernica by fascists. They later confronted him asking, "What is it that you did here?" His answer: "I didn't do this. You did." In that reply, you can see Pablo's skill and creativity reflected in the analysis he used to comment on the political context of his time. Oil and canvas gave him the opportunity to say something meaningful to a specific audience and the population at large. It's a powerful analogy, and a powerful construct: mastering STEM practices equips students with the critical thinking skills to be better creators and more attuned consumers of art.

The bottom line: the Next Generation Science Standards give us a tool-we must just choose to use it. It's a clear opportunity to teach across the curriculum, which is what educators should be considering in any case to get more bang for their buck when it comes to time and learning

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When Art and NGSS Meet Common Core: Math & ELA

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There are a number of crossovers between Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core math, art and ELA practices. Here are a few real-world examples of each. The first Common Core ELA technical subject standard for grades 6-8 asks that students use evidence to support analysis of science technical texts.

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New Practices and New Processes in STEM Instruction

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New Practices and New Processes in STEM Instruction

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Before NGSS, you may have used textbooks, etexts, or otherwise taken a content approach centering on understanding and applying. What the new Next Generation Science Standards ask is that we go further in challenging student's higher order thinking skills: creating, evaluating and analyzing, so that students are not only consuming the content but are actually participating and interacting with it, working to develop it as a solution to a problem or answer to a question of their own within the classroom.

This is the key: The new classroom experience asks students to play the role of scientist and engineer, take ownership of their learning, and work with the content and engage in the practices. That is how the practices connect with that disciplinary core idea. The content background is the disciplinary core idea and the way content behaves in context is the crosscutting concept. These are big shifts-the idea that students not only need to develop STEM skills, but that they also need to engage them as they create, evaluate, and analyze within the STEM classroom.

And the best ways to engage practices are within the content itself.
THE 8 STEM PRACTICES
Under NGSS, as a result of STEM instruction, a student must be able to:

1. Ask questions (for science) and define problems (for engineering).

2. Develop and use models, but not just something given to them. They must actually participate in that development

3. Plan and carry out investigations, which goes deeper than just being given a procedure. They must be able to plan the investigation and plan the procedure itself.

4. Analyze and interpret data, applying math to hunt for the key data points that support a claim about their hypothesis or prototype solution.

5. Use math and computational thinking. Think of this as considering scale when designing a prototype, being able to figure out resources required, conduct multiple trials, and determine sources of error and orders of magnitude.

6. Construct an explanation (for science) and design a solution (for engineering).

7. Engage in argument stemming from evidence.

8. Obtain, evaluate and communicate information.

Using these practices, students are effectively engaging as scientists and engineers in their classrooms.

The effect is a classroom in which the teacher is no longer the sage distributing facts -with 30-plus students in class, it's impossible to regulate the flow of knowledge to each individual student all the time. Engaging students in the practices of science and engineering allows educators to instead become facilitators of a STEM learning environment where students are discussing in an organized way and interacting with content, but are also expected to engage those practices and challenges themselves to solve problems and answer questions.

The result: A much more authentic science or engineering lab experience than would often be considered under standards prior to NGSS.

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New Practices and New Processes in STEM Instruction

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Before NGSS, you may have used textbooks, etexts, or otherwise taken a content approach centering on understanding and applying. What the new Next Generation Science Standards ask is that we go further in challenging student's higher order thinking skills: creating, evaluating and analyzing, so that students are not only consuming the content but are actually participating and interacting with it, working to develop it as a solution to a problem or answer to a question of their own within the classroom.

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Understanding the relationship between the core components in the STEM cycle is very helpful to understanding-and applying-the three dimensions: practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts that we find within the Next Generation Science Standards.

The NGSS present a clear directive for what students should get from STEM education: Effective STEM teaching will result in learning where a student can demonstrate an understanding of this standard in any relevant context.

The crux is this: A student can demonstrate what they have learned in any related context. In this way, the NGSS performance expectation is like the seat of a stool with three legs (the three dimensions) holding it up. Those legs not only support the standard, they help form the context in which the students will be expected to demonstrate understanding.

The three "legs" are the three dimensions:

Science and engineering practices: This is a skills dimension, something you may be familiar within the Common Core math practices. The practices demonstrate skills specific to the discipline-in this case, STEM- and help form processes, becoming a means of accessing background content.

Disciplinary core ideas are the content leg. NGSS content was chosen because it's dynamic and interacts other areas of content in a system. Many parts interrelate and pull different areas into contact such as life science and earth science. Disciplinary core ideas are intended to scaffold this way.

Crosscutting concepts are akin to systems thinking. They relate to how the content behaves in a system. Consider an ecosystem as a metaphor. You can think about the way matter moves in nature, between plants, animals and decomposers, and understand it as a whole or in parts. These parts interrelate as elements of the water cycle, life cycle, food chains, and food webs.

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Understanding the relationship between the core components in the STEM cycle is very helpful to understanding-and applying-the three dimensions: practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts that we find within the Next Generation Science Standards.

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It's a question a lot of educators have: At their core, what are the Next Generation Science Standards all about? Why do they exist? Why do we even need to consider changing our approach and methods?

In essence, the STEM cycle explains why 100 percent of students must be exposed to STEM-because STEM skills are life skills. Locked in the STEM cycle are the seeds of critical thinking-creative, evaluative, and analytical thinking skills that are transferable and that make students trainable. These skills are the key to workforce development and the underpinnings of a student's future college and career opportunities.

When we think about STEM as a cycle of innovation, we think about the relationships between science, technology, engineering and math. Those are the foundations of the Next Generation Science Standards, and the foundation of innovation and revolution in the STEM industries beyond school.
WHAT IS SCIENCE? WHAT IS ENGINEERING?
The Next Generation Science Standards give us a solid definition of what science is: knowledge from experimentation. Scientists ask questions, then develop hypotheses and use experiments to test those hypotheses. The purpose of an experiment is to produce data that allow scientists to reflect on a hypothesis and ultimately see if it's supported or not supported.
WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?
Engineers solve problems using scientific knowledge. It's worth noting, however, that a problem is not always something that's electronic or physical, and engineering is not always about building a bridge, designing a wind turbine or constructing a wall-it's broader. At its core, engineering is about solving a problem. The way you go about that is to identify and research the problem, survey the available materials, and then create prototypes to test. Engineers then use the data from those tests to determine whether a prototype does indeed create a solution to the problem.
WHERE DOES MATH BELONG IN STEM?
Software created in the Silicon Valley is technology: it solves problems. Spreadsheets and computers solve problems by enabling humans to store, transfer and convey data at fast rates and low costs. Aspirin and parking lot lines are also technology. Technology solves problems that directly or indirectly push society and innovation further, enabling scientists and engineers to ask questions and design experiments more frequently, more efficiently, and at whole new levels.

As scientists or engineers go about their work, constructing procedures for testing their hypotheses or prototypes, those procedures need specific language. Math serves as a tool for communication and analysis, helping convey specific information, capturing specific measurements and analyzing data to understand the outcomes of testing. Math therefore is a tool for communication, replicating, and verifying the claims of others.

This cycle applies to STEM in the K-12 classroom as well as careers. When we look at the STEM cycle this way, we should be duplicating an environment like those engineers and scientists face in the real world- asking questions and solving problems. This means equipping students to be engineers and scientists by allowing them to create hypotheses, build prototypes, test, analyze, and then use math to quantify their outcomes and communicate that information to peers.

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It's a question a lot of educators have: At their core, what are the Next Generation Science Standards all about? Why do they exist? Why do we even need to consider changing our approach and methods? In essence, the STEM cycle explains why 100 percent of students must be exposed to STEM-because STEM skills are life skills.

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Under NGSS, a student who is proficient has to be able to demonstrate it independently. That's why we think about the new science standards as performance expectations. A student needs to be able to perform the expectations of the standard by developing and using the content. They must be able to solve problems and answer questions as a scientist or engineer would. And they must be able to make connections across the content by describing its attraction to other ideas and content.
The performance expectations are comprised of three parts: science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts. A student will need all of these to perform the expectation: "Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment."
The focus of the new standards are three dimensional, meaning the performance expectation doesn't exist in isolation. You need understanding of the science and engineering practices, the content itself and a system within which the performance expectation will function in order to be able to perform it. Note that not only do none of these three aspects exist in isolation; neither does the expectation itself. Also note that while the above image showcases a single performance expectation, students engaged as scientists or engineers would actually combine multiple performance expectations and different elements of the foundation boxes that you see here.

The reason that phenomena are so important, and why the next generation model of instruction is so important, is that in order to perform the expectation, students need to be engaged in higher order thinking. The focus here is on the real-world context, on the observable phenomena we discussed above. In a physics context, for instance, we observe that the universe obeys natural laws, governing, for instance, what happens when two objects collide.
The revised Bloom's Taxonomy no longer stacks thinking skills in a pyramid, but places creating, evaluating and analyzing together at the top as equally important. While remembering, understanding and applying are still crucial foundational skills, they pale in comparison to the importance of the top three.
When we think about that context of observing two objects collide, we can actually explore that phenomena. Not necessarily by remembering, understanding and applying the facts related to it, though that is important as a foundation. However, the Next Generation Science Standards are really asking students to evaluate, analyze and create something out of what they're seeing that deepens their understanding of that collision. The new knowledge might relate to how one object moves relative to another or how high a ball bounces relative to where it was let go from, and so on. The point is that students do more than simply see and understand; they develop content and use skills, all within a systems context.

The demands on higher-order thinking only come to light if the classroom environment creates space for it. As teachers, we must create that opportunity for students, not by playing the conduit role and getting between content and students, but instead by playing the coach role. Part of being a coach, moreover, understands that you be able to recognize whether or not your classroom (or classrooms, if you're an administrator) are phenomena-centered and using phenomena-centered curriculum. Let's turn our attention to that now.

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Under NGSS, a student who is proficient has to be able to demonstrate it independently. That's why we think about the new science standards as performance expectations. A student needs to be able to perform the expectations of the standard by developing and using the content.

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What Does a Phenomena-Centered Classroom and Curriculum Look Like?

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What Does a Phenomena-Centered Classroom and Curriculum Look Like?

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There are five basic aspects of qualifying a classroom as phenomena-centered.
There are five basic steps to qualifying a classroom as phenomena-centered, each of them related to specific actions that we as teachers and administrators can take to encourage these outcomes.
If you want to qualify a quality phenomena-centered classroom and curriculum, it first and foremost starts with asking yourself, "Are students engaged as scientists and engineers?" If the answer is no, you are already falling short of the goal. Luckily, by focusing on the next steps, you can begin to change that.

If you want to engage students as scientists and engineers, you must create a shift in each student from doing science to actually being scientists. When asked this question, a lot of classroom teachers might answer, "Well, we're doing science," and that's probably true in the strictest sense of the term. But they're doing it by rote when in fact, students need to be engaged as scientists or as engineers. That shift can also be thought about as a shift from learning about something to actually figuring out aspects of a context - which is, let's remember, a phenomenon. In our previous example, for instance, we are trying to figure out what happens when two objects collide, which requires actually stepping into the shoes of scientists and engineers.

Third is thinking about whether or not students are empowered to build a framework of understanding that actually is the world around them. Shaving cream clouds, Skittle pictures and cake ... these are not real-world phenomena. These might seem like silly examples, but they aren't. Just go on Pinterest and you'll see exactly what we mean. These are add-on designed to grab student attention, but which do not give them the skills to engage in science and engineering as they need to engage in it.

Instead, we need to empower students to build a framework of understanding out of something that is actually happening or has actually happened. The real world is literally the world around us, the phenomena that they see and can be a part of every single day, if we give them the tools.

For instance, let's look at Superstorm Sandy as an example. That is a real historical event, it is very complex, and it creates a rich context in which students can begin to unpack and build a framework of understanding. Using examples such as this can generate all sorts of questions that students can approach as scientists as well as abundant opportunity for them to problem-solve as engineers.
Knowledge must always be contextualized in real-world settings. When students are simply "knowledge ready," which means they are equipped with facts but unable to perform using them and do not possess the mastery that allows them to transfer skills to other situations, they do not and cannot effectively interact with the world as scientists and engineers. That's where the fourth facet comes in.
Fourth is knowledge built in context, which makes the world itself an anchor to transfer and deepen understanding. What we mean by that is, if what a student learns and if what drives instruction is real-world context "phenomena," then students will be forced to analyze, evaluate and create in the context of the real world. By virtue of doing that, the real world around the student is actually the anchor for their understanding. It becomes a rich context, which students can use as a "filing system" for the skills they've developed, which can then be generalized and applied more broadly and in deeper context.

The fifth piece of evidence that you have a phenomena-center classroom is that students will identify STEM as an opportunity to understand and shape their world. That is a big source of empowerment, and should be a huge part of both the classroom and the curriculum. Here at KnowAtom, we strive always to make sure this is the case.

In order to have a phenomena-centered classroom and curriculum, it's very important to take this into account in the lesson planning. Now, a common mistake educators will make is to assume that the curriculum and the inquiry environment are two different things. If you want to have this type of classroom, however, you must understand that that isn't the case. The curriculum and lesson planning are not different from the next generation inquiry environment. One produces the other; they are inseparably linked.

If you're not sure whether your curriculum or your environment are engaging, are phenomena-centered, then here's a simple little exercise you can try. Just ask yourself:

Is that a class I would like to be sitting in on every day as a student? Is this real-world relevant? If the answer to either is no, and you would prefer a different sort of experience, chances are good your students feel the same way and you are failing to engage them as scientists and engineers.

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What does a Phenomena-Centered Classroom and Curriculum Look Like?

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There are five basic aspects of qualifying a classroom as phenomena-centered. There are five basic steps to qualifying a classroom as phenomena-centered, each of them related to specific actions that we as teachers and administrators can take to encourage these outcomes.

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In this blog we will take a look at what phenomena are and how they relate to the Next Generation Science Standards. In addition, it is crucial to understand the nature of the science and engineering cycle as well as the traditional versus the next generation models of science instruction.
Phenomena as Observable Events

In order to put phenomena to work for you in your classroom, you need to understand what they are. So just what are phenomena?

A phenomenon is the context that motivates the work of a scientist or an engineer, the events, circumstances or framework that defines what they do, the knowledge they're looking for and the problems they're trying to solve. In plain language, a scientist or an engineer doesn't go to work to remember facts or previously learned knowledge. That's not why people hire them.

Rather, scientists and engineers function in a context to actually develop and use that content, generating new ideas and contributing new knowledge to the preexisting body. Specifically, when we talk about scientists, we mean people who are focused on answering questions about observable events. They're answering those questions by developing and using their knowledge to test hypothetical answers to those questions.
A phenomenon, in the scientific context, is an observable event that can range from a seasonal hazard to a technological issue. In the engineering context, a phenomenon is a problem that can be solved. For instance, this might be streets that flood frequently or the desire to view objects at ever-further distances.
For a scientist, a phenomenon is an observable event. If you look at the examples in a K-12 context, an observable event could be an autumn day. It could be the slip and fall phenomenon that we may see on a winter's day. It could be organisms eating. It could be seasonal light patterns. It could be computers crashing. These are all observable events, and provide a context which scientists could then develop and explore. In other words, they could develop a question around the phenomena - the observable event - and attempt to answer that question by testing a hypothesis.

For an engineer, phenomena have to do with a problem that may be solved by extending their knowledge of science. Good examples of this include street flooding, fuel consumption, how to observe objects that are away, traffic, how to get from one point to another quicker, how to make boats travel faster and so on.

So scientists take their observations of events and ask questions about them, then test hypotheses related to those questions, to create new evidence-based knowledge. Engineers then expand on that knowledge by solving problems observed in the world around us through prototyping - designing solutions then testing them until they find something that works, and typically, continuing to improve solutions over time.

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In this blog we will take a look at what phenomena are and how they relate to the Next Generation Science Standards. In addition, it is crucial to understand the nature of the science and engineering cycle as well as the traditional versus the next generation models of science instruction.

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ASCD Express 12.12 - Disciplinary Literacy: A Shift That Makes Sense

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Teaching with NGSS - The Culture of Grit

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Teaching with NGSS - The Culture of Grit

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Grit is critical, and luckily, it is also pretty straightforward. What's hard about it is how to hold those expectations consistent over time. Here's how you do it.
In order to create a culture of grit in your classroom, you can follow this strategy. Doing so helps students form accurate expectations about the role of effort and deliberate practice in achieving success.
If you really want to understand how to create a culture of grit in your classroom, we recommend two must-reads: Grit by Angela Duckworth and Mindset by Carol Dweck.

The first thing you have to do is acknowledge to students that acquiring valuable skills is hard work and that effort makes any skill that you have more productive. The message sounds something like: "In our classroom, we are engaged in hard work and we are going to make whatever skill we have productive." This relies heavily on helping students accept the second step in the above image: "The kind of deliberate practice that produces skill is not fun, it is often confusing and we make mistakes." But that is not the same as failure, because we won't stop trying.

That leads to number three, to help students anticipate that hard emotions like frustration and confusion are normal. We're all dealing with this, whether we're adults or students. We need to set that expectation whether it's a kindergarten classroom, 1 st grade, 5 th grade or 8 th grade. If you want to have a highly effective classroom, this needs to be an inherent part of the culture, part of the everyday basis on which class is founded. That in turn requires embracing a growth mindset.

That is why it's so important to have gritty expectations of students in the first place. We have to develop a culture of grit in the classroom, because possessing grit is one of the greatest determinants of whether or not students will be successful. Francis Vigeant's students (KnowAtom's founder) didn't do test prep, but his students performed 40% over the state average because that's the level they were operating at consistently. That's because the class was harder than the test. It wasn't harder because it required constant drilling, but because they actually had to think day in and day out.

As the writer of this letter points out, they had to get confused. They had to do things that were tedious and sometimes boring. There were days that he had to just really push through. None of that was accidental. If students don't have to push through anything, then they run the risk of becoming a "fragile perfect" and developing a skewed concept of reality, a perception where if things don't come easily aka "naturally" then they aren't worth doing at all.

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Grit is critical, and luckily, it is also pretty straightforward. What's hard about it is how to hold those expectations consistent over time. Here's how you do it. In order to create a culture of grit in your classroom, you can follow this strategy.

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Developed in Carol Dweck's book, a growth mindset is the idea that we can work towards our goals. It's not so much whether or not we're good at something, because we can be not good at something yet and still be working toward it. When a student says "I can't do this," you need to train your students to add "yet." The understanding needs to be that they might not yet be good at something, but that hard work can get them there and in the classroom that's what we do: get closer to that goal, even if we still don't achieve it. As a teacher, a key piece of this is coaching. Acting as the coach rather than the sage on the stage, listening to students and believing in them, is key to developing a culture of grit in the Next Generation model.

For instance, when you talk to students, you have to use a specific approach. For instance, if you ask them a question, they will give you an answer. You need to listen for what they mean when they answer rather than simply what they say, because often they what they say and what they mean will fail to line up. When this happens, you must ask another question and help them get to that true meaning. The whole purpose of this is to help them build the tools they need to express their meaning, sometimes verbally, sometimes in writing and sometimes in other modalities.

You'll want to use examples of your struggles to help students understand that it's not just "them." They need to understand that adults aren't "good" at everything either, that adults engage in hard work, and that by engaging in hard work as students, we develop skills that are going to help us adults.

You'll also need to question students about their ideas and provide them immediate feedback. You don't want students to run off for an hour developing a plan, executing it and then looking at the results all on their own. Instead, you need to create checkpoints so that students are getting immediate feedback all the way along: at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and so on. Students teams should always be coming up and filtering through, so that you are constantly in dialogue with them.

The last step is grading a student's progress and not the product delivered. To do this, you need to grade based on how the student changes, set clear and consistent expectations about what is expected, and look for those expectations in student growth. If you aren't clear and consistent, students won't believe you, they will disengage and you will see limited growth. However, if you consistently reward growth by grading the result of the effort rather than grading whether they've met some milestone or not - giving either a 1 or a 0, a right or a wrong - then you create that culture of grit. Otherwise, you create a culture where high-level students can give you the "right" answer with little effort, and disengaged students who can't do so easily disengage because of their inherent belief that they are not and never will be "good at this." Neither student will develop anything new.

For the high-level student, what has really changed, after all? What are you grading? You're grading their stable home life or their ability to take vacations to exotic places. A high-level student who stays high isn't developing. On the other hand, the low-level student who has not had these opportunities and works their way from low to mid-level is seeing huge growth as a result of their effort. That is exemplary work. You should be requiring that same type of effort from higher level students by drilling them deeper in other areas. That's where creating an environment in which challenge exceeds skill becomes critical.

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Developed in Carol Dweck's book, a growth mindset is the idea that we can work towards our goals. It's not so much whether or not we're good at something, because we can be not good at something yet and still be working toward it.

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Schools nationwide are adding STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Labs, spaces where students can apply science and math concepts. "We have two dedicated 'STEM Labs' spaces," shared by two grade-level groups, K-4 and 5-8, says Jessica Boualavong, K-4 STEM teacher at Town School for Boys, an independent school in San Francisco. "For our STEM program, we integrate engineering projects and skills into traditionally science-based units," she notes.

"One STEM lab is designed for heavy-duty prototyping and experimenting, [with] tool chests and large sinks for easy access and management of supplies and cleanup," she explains. "It's essential to have a very well-defined, student-accessible supply area for prototyping across subject areas."

The second STEM lab "is a forum space with three projectors for...presentations, [where] students can show off their projects or participate in a videoconference," she explains. This space has a smaller Maker Corner where students can do "open-ended tinkering and practice with tools and supplies," she relates.

At Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, STEM Education Teacher Eileen Antonison teaches a 45-day STEM Lab cycle class. "I developed and wrote the curriculum for my [grades 6-8] integrated STEM courses that are aligned to the full-year core science classes...I collaborate with the science teachers to make sure we're supporting [one another]" and not assigning duplicate projects, she relates.

For example, seventh graders study life science in their science classes and "bioengineering-life science and environmental engineering," in STEM Lab, she notes. In science, they study photosynthesis; in STEM Lab, they build, use, and collect data from photobioreactors, systems that use light to grow algae using only the photosynthetic mode of cultivation.

Some schools are adding STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) Labs. "[W]e built brand-new [ones] in all five of our elementary school[s]," says Tara Kristoff, director of curriculum at Cook County School District 104 in Summit, Illinois, a K-8 school district with high percentages of English language learners and students living in poverty. STEAM classrooms "are state of the art with writable wall[s], windows, and furniture...[T]he furniture is movable to encourage collaboration and discussion," she explains.

The curriculum delves "deeply into Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS) science and engineering instruction and assessment," she asserts. For example, first graders learn in science class that waves make sound through a material. In STEAM Lab, they create their own drums using different materials and see which sounds they make, and draw the type of sound waves that match their drum's sound. "Students see the connection of science to everything else in the world," Kristoff contends.

General education teachers and STEAM teachers co-teach the class. "Many K-5 teachers in our district who [don't] feel confident teaching science are becoming confident with the help and support of " STEAM teachers, who have been trained "in the pedagogy shift of NGSS and truly embody the three dimensions in their teaching," she maintains.

In group projects, students practice teamwork, compromise, and conflict resolution-"the skills to be the best STEM employee possible," she asserts. "Most importantly, we have [groups] who have been historically [considered disinterested] in STEM thinking about [future STEM] careers."

In the Powhatan County Public Schools district in Powhatan, Virginia, every school has a full-time STEM lead teacher, and "we have two full-time STEM coaches for our K-5 [STEM Lab] program" because "we believe by building interest early, our students will not only have a better understanding of the types of work people in STEM career fields do, but also they will be more likely to pursue STEM electives" and STEM careers, says Libbey Kitten, K-12 science/STEM curriculum specialist.

The program's design was based on recommendations from a steering committee of parents, teachers, engineers, and representatives from local businesses. "We're a small, semi-rural district with limited resources, but we have discovered that if you build it, and you have the support of your community, the money will come," she relates.

STEM Lab teachers in Colorado's Englewood School District are certified "through the Colorado Department of Education as CTE [Career and Technical Education] STEM teachers," says Bill Gilmore, the district's STEM coordinator and STEM coach. "We have STEM Labs in...our high schools, our middle school, and one elementary school. We hope to [expand to all elementary schools] and our preschool by fall 2017."

STEM Labs "are stand-alone...classes at the middle school and high school level, and specials at the elementary level...We want these spaces to be places where students can be creative, collaborate, think outside of the traditional boxes, and fail in an environment where failure is expected and part of the process," he maintains.

"We have three STEM pathways for K-12, based on Colorado's economy: computer science; natural resources and energy; and engineering, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. In the STEM Lab, students are free to come up with ideas and apply them through a pathway, following the design process," he explains. Students "explore careers related to their projects and connect their projects to their core classes."

Crocker High School in Crocker, Missouri, offers STEM Labs as enrichment, says science teacher Marteen Nolan. "Enrichment activities have proven to be strong incentives for our students," she asserts. Students need "at least a C average and no Fs, 95% attendance,...and no written disciplines" to participate, she explains. Students in level two, Thinking Labs, which involve high-level STEM activities, must have a B average and 100% attendance.

Students in Thinking Labs can program robots, use a 3D printer "for agricultural structure creation," or join ExMASS (Exploration of the Moon and Asteroids by Secondary Students), an independent research project with a NASA mentor scientist, says Nolan.

STEM enrichment time gives other teachers time to help struggling students, explains Nolan. "This works well in a smaller school like ours...in a rural, high-poverty community..., [and] we're seeing trends in the right direction so far in all subjects that are tested."

This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.
The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.
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Schools nationwide are adding STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Labs, spaces where students can apply science and math concepts. "We have two dedicated 'STEM Labs' spaces," shared by two grade-level groups, K-4 and 5-8, says Jessica Boualavong, K-4 STEM teacher at Town School for Boys, an independent school in San Francisco.

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A Next Generation Approach to Time and Resources

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A Next Generation Approach to Time and Resources

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Let's take a quick look at some of the most common stumbling blocks teachers encounter when thinking about teaching Next Generation Science Standards aligned curriculum for the first time.

For teachers unfamiliar with next generation teaching methods, the new approach to STEM education can all seem rather overwhelming. If you're used to 40-minute chunks for teaching science and social studies once a week, it's not surprising for you to wonder where you'll possibly find the time. Well, if that's all you have, you simply can't teach science and engineering effectively. Part of what the new standards call for is inarguably more time. For example, 3rd to 5th graders need 2.5 to 3 hours of week of time-on-learning. Otherwise, your students will fall short of meeting NGSS performance expectations.

Another important item to note about effective science and engineering environments is that they don't drag on forever through stilted "week on, week off" models, alternating months, or other systems that require taking long breaks from science and engineering. That's only going to create a situation in which you automatically lose momentum. Skills require recurring deliberate practice in the form of science and engineering practice skills, which must be used frequently to keep them sharp.

That also means that you need to use the time you have well. Some holdovers from the traditional model of instruction can seriously hamper your efforts to teach STEM if you're not careful-for instance, the idea that directly communicating the standards to students is important. The truth is, the fact that the student knows the literal standard really isn't that important. What is important is that the teacher knows the literal standard and understands its connection to other standards.

Now, you might say something like, "Well, the research shows that writing standards on the board increases performance," but that's a very limited area of research. What's more important is to use time allotted for science and engineering wisely. If, as an administrator, you require teachers to write the standard on the board and read it aloud to the students, you're not really doing anything for the students. What you are doing is forcing that teacher to think about the standard, at least for a moment. That might have a positive effect on the teacher's behavior, but it also uses valuable time. If that takes 10 minutes, and the teacher spends 15 minutes summarizing, you've already lost 25 minutes of your 40 minutes of time-on-learning to an activity that is not part of the core instruction.

There is no way that a teacher will be able to accomplish all of the goals in the standards within that 15-minute window. Even the word "standard" is a misnomer; it is actually a performance expectation. A teacher would never have time to write that all out, and even if they printed it out and stuck it to the wall, the value would be very limited. Everything you do has to have a high degree of value. Therefore, any introduction to the standard should take no more than 5 minutes.

Another source of common confusion is assessment. Here at KnowAtom, we affirm that multiple-choice questions fail to accurately assess student learning, while printable worksheets fail to teach. Given this statement, some people look at the NGSS-aligned resources we create and question what looks like our occasional use of multiple-choice assessments and worksheets.

First, we'll address worksheets. If you look at an early grade level, what you're going to see is a gradual release of responsibility where students have ownership over specific segments of the scientific or engineering design process. Over the course of different lessons and multiple units, younger students use preformatted tools to engage in science and engineering. They are part of an experience that a student is engaging in, planning, developing and carrying out for themselves. Visually, this might look like a worksheet, but it is actually a support to allow students to take on the roles of scientists and engineers.

An excerpt from the concept assessment section of our 6th grade STEM curriculum.

Now we'll address the occasional use of multiple-choice assessment. This is a great tool as well. You may notice that we use some multiple-choice vocabulary check questions in the assessment section of our curriculum. The important thing to note is that this is just an assessment, and assessments are not the form for learning.

People confuse the two all the time, but it's important to understand that they are quite separate. Assessment is simply a tool to understand elements of what a student has learned and to allow us to gather evidence of it upon which we can build further instruction. They enable students to signal that they understand a particular vocabulary word or concept. Real assessments cover how students have learned to engage in planning, developing and carrying out scientific investigations and design processes.

Understanding this will help you effectively contextualize what effective habits look like in the classroom.

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A Next Generation Approach to Time and Resources

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Let's take a quick look at some of the most common stumbling blocks teachers encounter when thinking about teaching Next Generation Science Standards aligned curriculum for the first time. For teachers unfamiliar with next generation teaching methods, the new approach to STEM education can all seem rather overwhelming.

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Traditional vs. Next Generation Standards and Pedagogy

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Traditional vs. Next Generation Standards and Pedagogy

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Just as the meanings of science and engineering under NGSS are different from their traditional definitions, the next generation model of science instruction is different from traditional ways it has been taught. The question is this: Why is the traditional model no longer effective under the new standards?

In the traditional model of science instruction, the teacher acts as gatekeeper between students and content.

It all comes down to the roles teachers and students play, and their relationship to the content, under the new model. A traditional model of instruction is one where content flows through a teacher. In this role, the teacher is a content expert who models facts, demonstrates phenomena and explains what things are to students. In that environment, students are in a rote-recall situation. Their job is to recall the facts, repeat the demonstrations and summarize the phenomena. This approach plays out throughout the curriculum. If you look at the traditional multiple choice assessments that are common across the United States, for instance, you can see that they're often looking only for fact recall. Under the new standards, however, that's entirely changed.

That's an important point. In some instances, the reason students using the KnowAtom model perform so well, so quickly, is that they're taught by teachers who never really used this traditional model. Therefore, a switch to the new standards isn't too difficult for them. For teachers who haven't used it, though, the transition is sometimes much more difficult, because under Next Generation Science Standards a traditional model of science instruction is totally outdated. As educators we simply can't get by with it anymore. (See our next post outlining the next generation model)

A lot of this has to do with the higher order thinking skills we're trying to cultivate in the classroom. These skills are necessary if students are to do well in higher education and succeed as innovators in their careers.

The NGSS standards are built to encourage the higher order thinking skills students need to succeed in college, career and later life. Unlike the traditional Bloom's Taxonomy, which progresses from remembering, understanding an applying to analyzing, evaluating and creating, this rearranged taxonomy features the latter three equally positioned at the top.

You can see on the rearranged Bloom's Taxonomy above that the new standards require creating, evaluating and analyzing to happen simultaneously. The traditional assumption that students first need to remember, then they apply, etc., is not really correct. It doesn't work that way, because students need to use all of these skills at once in order to operate as scientists and engineers. It is especially important that none of the top three are prioritized over one another, as all are needed to truly take on those roles. So instead of starting at the bottom and building up, you need to start at the top. If you can get students creating things, evaluating their creations and analyzing the outcomes simultaneously, they will automatically be forced to remember, understand and apply.

That doesn't happen in the traditional model, which is why highly effective classrooms look very different. By "highly effective," we mean those that are demonstrating 80, 90 or even 100 percent of students who are advanced and proficient in science. (Lest you lose heart, know that you don't have to start anywhere close to these numbers in order to end up there.)

So what's the difference with classrooms such as these? Simple: The teacher's role. Our next article will cover how NGSS has changed teachers' approaches in education.

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Traditional vs. Next Generation Standards and Pedagogy

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Just as the meanings of science and engineering under NGSS are different from their traditional definitions, the next generation model of science instruction is different from traditional ways it has been taught. The question is this: Why is the traditional model no longer effective under the new standards?

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Giving Immediate Helpful Feedback as Coach Not Expert

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Giving Immediate Helpful Feedback as Coach Not Expert

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Remember that in the next generation model of instruction, the teacher tunes the inquiry environment, gradually adjusting student supports, helping them engage appropriately with the material, redirecting and monitoring them. They are acting in every way as a coach, helping students interact with content rather than gatekeeping it.
The sixth habit of highly effective teachers is giving immediate helpful feedback as a coach and not an expert. You can see how important this role is looking at the image above. Teachers in this role don't get between the content and the student, but rather help to strengthen the connection and interaction between the two. This isn't just our experience of what works in top-performing classrooms ... it is what NGSS is actively asking for. In fact, this concept goes back to the National Research Council's A Framework for K-12 Science Education and even the Carnegie Corporation's publication The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy.
Effective STEM instruction capitalizes on students' early interest and experiences, identifies and builds on what they know, and provides them with experiences to engage them in the practices of science and sustain their interest.
Today, there is a new definition of effective STEM instruction, which is a model of teaching that capitalizes on students' early interest and experiences (intentionally nurturing their development), identifies and builds on what they know (scaffolding their knowledge and skills), and provides students with the experiences to engage them in the practices of science and sustain their interest. Again, how do you sustain their interest? By having a rigorous, purposeful and challenging curriculum.

This is a major step forward. If you look at the two pictures above, you'll see a significant difference between the two. The one on the left shows the "I do, you do" traditional model in which the teacher demonstrates and students repeat. This is a completely backwards approach, and actively works again development of the practices and a full release of responsibility. After all, if I do it, then we do it, what's left for you - the student - to do?

In the picture on the right, students are engaging with the practices of science and engineering directly. This is the "you do" model. And if students can't yet do it on their own, then the teacher will think about it with them and figure out a way together. The teacher can be a thought partner, especially at the beginning, and continuing in that coaching role through the checkpoints as time goes on.
Students check in regularly with the teacher, using the teacher as a thought partner when necessary. The teacher coaches rather than acts as expert, helping redirect students, draw out the meaning from their words and fine-tune their approach.
That doesn't mean the teacher tells students the answer. Instead, the teacher asks students difficult and specific questions that cause them to actually think, assess what they have written so far, make connections and think about what was learned previously. Doing this helps students to build a framework of understanding.
Here you see the steps of claim-evidence reasoning, and then an example of what that might look like in a student conclusion.
Even after students have created and carried out their plans, you can still act as a coach to guide them through their conclusion in the form of claim-evidence-reasoning. This is a model of writing that uses a specific progression from question to hypothesis to claim to evidence to reasoning. This is something you can implement tomorrow to help students form conclusions based on evidence they gather in their experiments. Students read this to you, and you listen for each piece of the model, from initial question to final, consistent reasoning. Doing so not only helps students deepen their ability to form conclusions, but it ensure students are at all times using those science and engineering practices and engaging with the skills they're supposed to be mastering.

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Giving Immediate Helpful Feedback as Coach Not Expert

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Remember that in the next generation model of instruction, the teacher tunes the inquiry environment, gradually adjusting student supports, helping them engage appropriately with the material, redirecting and monitoring them. They are acting in every way as a coach, helping students interact with content rather than gatekeeping it.

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Questions Are the New Answers, with Warren Berger

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Journalist Warren Berger discusses how thinking in questions can catalyze innovation and reveal more effective answers. The time to adopt this mindset is early and Berger advocates for teaching this skill in primary schools. Berger is the author of A More Beautiful Question (http://goo.gl/rUr785). Don't miss new Big Think videos!

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From Simple Machines to Life Skills

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To better teach these complicated concepts, Bryant has her students act out the movements of simple machines. "When elementary-age students understand a concept through the use of their body, they rarely forget it," notes Bryant. "I am able to introduce physics, advanced math, and visual representation skills that are typically beyond elementary level as a result of this hands-on or full-body approach."

Create an Engineering Curriculum Using Backward Design

Bryant's elementary engineering curriculum flows from a backward design approach. She starts with the results that she wants her students to achieve, and then designs the instructional methods to meet those goals.

"There isn't a statewide curriculum for elementary school engineering design," explains Bryant, "but looking at the standards for where they need to be in middle school and in high school, I'm able to backward design for what should be happening at the elementary level."

There are three stages to backward design.

Stage 1: Identify Learning Objectives

This first stage focuses on what big ideas and skills you want your students to learn. "I think about problems our school or community face and what standards I need the students to master," says Bryant. Her specific learning objectives for K-2 students are:

A basic understanding of the design process

Understanding the value of brainstorming and teamwork

Experience thinking through all aspects of a problem when considering a decision

Experiencing the value of success after many failures

With younger students, she also introduces career and college opportunities as part of how they might apply these skills to real-world contexts.

Stage 2: Define Assessment Strategy

When designing a project, Bryant considers what will be evidence of mastery, and what assessment methods she can use. "Rubrics are a big part of the assessment strategy for engineering design," she says. She also considers how the evidence might be authentic and solve a real-life problem.

Stage 3: Identify Teaching Methods, Resources, and Materials

The final stage focuses on the skills and knowledge that students will need to achieve the goals you're setting for them, as well as the teaching methods, lessons, and resources that you'll use to help them reach those goals. "I think about what scaffolding, resources, and materials might be necessary for an elementary student to solve what could potentially be an adult-like problem," elaborates Bryant. "The last step is key when working with younger populations. Often they are able to do amazing things with the right amount of support and proper choices in materials or resources."

Use Design Thinking Process

Design thinking is a process that allows people to come up with ideas and solve problems in a creative and engaging way, honing their collaboration, critical thinking, and communication skills. Empathy -- understanding who you are designing for -- is a key element of design thinking, as well as collaboration -- working with others to build on your ideas, gaining feedback, and learning how to make iterations on your ideas from that feedback.

Charles R. Drew Charter School follows the stages outlined in the James Dyson design thinking process -- brief, research, idea generation/development, 3D prototyping, testing, and evaluation and modification. The staff relies on the Nueva School's design thinking model to make the process more robust. "The idea of empathy is a big part of their structure," says Bryant about that model.

The TinkerYard and Dream Car Projects

The students at Charles R. Drew use design thinking to create their projects. For each grade, Bryant comes up with projects that the students work on throughout the quarter. Second-grade students are currently designing and building a TinkerYard, four outdoor stations that make up a playground. Fourth-grade students are designing a Dream Car for a particular customer and a fictional auto company. The final product will be a 3D model of their concept car.

Phase 1: Brief

The goal of a brief is to outline a project and communicate expectations and goals. The students' brief describes the purpose of creating the project and what its use will be, as well as outlining questions for them to consider. In the fourth-grade Dream Car project, for example, students receive a brief (PDF) which identifies what their teacher is looking for and what they will be expected to accomplish by the end of the project.

The brief outlines that students will:

Identify a client and imagine their needs.

Consider what design enhancements might make the trip easier.

Select/create vehicle features that will make the trip nicer for everyone.

Create multiple idea sketches and share ideas with the group.

Select one idea and create a final series of at least two sketches showing the front, side, and three-quarter view of the concept car.

Create a clay prototype of the vehicle.

Present their idea sketches and prototype.

Phase 2: Research

The goal of the research phase is for students to be better informed when designing. They learn research, analysis, and sometimes interviewing skills during this process.

In the second-grade TinkerYard project, Bryant's students research possible simple machines for the energy station using books, Google images, and online videos. They look at architectural magazines (donated by a local architecture firm) for ideas about shapes, patterns, and colors. They also do hands-on research, "manipulating a collection of physical items -- like rope, pulleys, wheels, pieces of wood, and other material -- to create their own simple machines on the fly," adds Bryant.

Fourth-grade students go to the High Museum of Art, which features the Dream Cars exhibit, to take notes about size, shape, form, and materials. They learn about composition, materials, and use (like how many passengers were intended for this car), and how they can apply that knowledge to their target customer's wants. In their research, students also delve deeper into understanding their customers' experiences to design for an unmet need by interviewing a user and analyzing user data. Where does their target customer go when driving? Who comes with them? What do they take with them?

Phase 3: Idea Generation/Development

For the idea generation/development phase, says Bryant, "students should be able to synthesize information and begin to make design decisions that will alter the way their product works, looks, and feels for the user. Teachers also want students to be able to successfully communicate their ideas -- visually, orally, or in written form -- and be able to share them with the world."

Second-grade students draw sketches of their ideas showing what each TinkerYard station could look like. "Students learn how to draw their idea in perspective," explains Bryant. "The students then see that 3D drawings best communicate their idea."

Fourth-grade students also draw 2D and 3D sketches to communicate their ideas, but they may begin by rendering a concept car stemming from someone else's idea so that they'll feel confident when it comes time for drawing and sharing their own ideas. "Students may also add descriptive language to their drawings to capture ideas and thoughts that relate to the concept," suggests Bryant.

Phase 4: 3D Prototyping

According to Bryant, the goal of the 3D prototyping stage is for students "to see how their ideas look and might function in real life."

The TinkerYard is a working prototype. "As a class, we may try an idea out on paper and begin to build it in the TinkerYard, only to realize that objects need to shift, or don't work quite the way we envisioned," says Bryant. "The TinkerYard is an iterative process. It will never be completely finished."

Meanwhile, the fourth-grade class is building 3D clay models. "They follow a process very similar to industry," explains Bryant. "The auto industry still makes clay models despite having many 3D printers and other rapid prototyping materials on hand."

Phase 5: Testing

The goal of the testing phase is to gain feedback on the prototype in order to make improvements.

After putting together the TinkerYard's energy station, the second-grade class has a "soft opening" -- they invite students and teachers to play at the station, which can reveal changes that need to be made once the designers see how users interact with what they created. When issues arise from testing, students go back to the classroom, generate new ideas, and prototype solutions.

Bryant describes how her fourth-grade students "seek the client's approval for the concept car they have created. Similar to the process in the automotive industry, where designers present the concept car to a test market and get consumer feedback, students show their vehicle and promotional materials to the students in the class and other visitors to get their impressions. I like to involve actual users or professionals from the design field as much as possible in student feedback."

Phase 6: Evaluation and Modification

The goal of the evaluation and modification stage is to have students collaborate, see how ideas combine, and understand the importance of feedback and making iterations. "The evaluation/modification phase is not set in stone behind prototyping," explains Bryant. "Evaluation is necessary at many points in the process to ensure you are on the right track. Once evaluation is underway, it may become clear that modification of ideas, drawings, or prototypes is necessary before progressing to the next step."

For both the lower and upper elementary projects, students share out their drawings and gain feedback on their designs for iteration. "It is important for students to learn that in the design process, it is not one and done," says Bryant. "Students want designing something to be fast and are hopeful that their first attempt will be good enough. The students help each other see that iterations are necessary. They provide feedback, and it is helpful when it does not come from the teacher. Often, students are more willing to consider feedback from a critical friend."

Assessment

" Rubrics (PDF) are a big part of the assessment strategy for engineering design," observes Bryant. On the Dream Cars rubric, students rate themselves and their cars on a one-to-three scale reflecting how they met their clients' needs, effective modeling, and visual appeal. Next to each rating, they explain why they gave themselves that score.

The end of the Dream Car project also features a student evaluation form (PDF), on which they write three things they like about their Dream Car model, two things they would change, and one thing they've learned.

Bryant also evaluates her students' work using the rubric, which she uses, along with their self-evaluation, to discuss their work with them, whether or not they're on the same page, and why.

Resources

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Applied Engineering in Elementary School | Edutopia

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To better teach these complicated concepts, Bryant has her students act out the movements of simple machines. "When elementary-age students understand a concept through the use of their body, they rarely forget it," notes Bryant. "I am able to introduce physics, advanced math, and visual representation skills that are typically beyond elementary level as a result of this hands-on or full-body approach."

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Putting the A in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) is often treated as an afterthought. Yet, art has always played a major role in helping us expand and appreciate new science technologies.

Photo credit: mederndepe via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

To develop a complete mind; study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. -- Leonardo Da Vinci

Art continues to remain marginal in education, and I believe this is why: Despite tremendous growth in technology, STEM industries, and education, we are stuck in a rut in our politics, our economy, and the fight for health and fairness for most people.

Art makes us more human and empathetic. Without art, it is hard to imagine the lives of other people, other creatures, and the possibilities of other realities in general. Because of this deficit in art education, young people have tremendous faith in the coolness and remarkable evolution of their gadgets, but not much faith in themselves and other humans to grow and evolve.

Putting the A for art in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) to make STEAM is too often treated as an afterthought. Yet, art has always played a major role in helping us expand and appreciate new science technologies, from the printing press to the smart phone. What would these technologies mean without poetry, movies, music, and smart visual design? Art helps give humans the desire and inspiration to invest great energy and resources into STEM.

Art's relationship to STEM has long been obvious to me. When I first got out of art school one of my first professional jobs was in Silicon Valley. After a stint as an intern at Microsoft and a nine-month contract at Starwave -- a now defunct company started by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen -- I was employee number five at a startup near Palo Alto.

This was in the 90s, and back then, one could still have pie-in-the-sky notions about what technology would do for society. My dream was to bring imaginative worlds alive using 3D technology and games. While much of this has come true, I am mostly disillusioned by how militaristic and combat-oriented most major gaming franchises have become, and I think this failure is due to art's second-class status in education.

So, while we watch technology's growth, let's make sure we grow along with it. We do this through our poetry, our dance, our music, our visual art, and our literature. We push the potential for our hearts to grow.

A Call to Action

So, let me propose an amendment to Moore's law. Moore's Law, which was proposed by the co-founder of Intel -- Gordon Moore -- in 1965, said that the power of computer technology will double every year. This has held true until now.

My amendment only proposes that we grow along with it in terms of more compassion, in terms of more imagination, in terms of our desire to do more towards endeavors that are more important than our smart phones. Let's call it the More Amendment.

This is where art education counts. Art grows the heart and the imagination so that our science, technology, engineering, and math will reflect what is best in us. Through art education, Silicon Valley will be the afterthought, and our students will be more excited by the future of themselves.

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More Heart, More Art Through STEAM | Edutopia

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Putting the A in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) is often treated as an afterthought. Yet, art has always played a major role in helping us expand and appreciate new science technologies. Photo credit: mederndepe via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) To develop a complete mind; study the science of art; study the art of science.

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What the Heck is Inquiry-Based Learning?

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What the Heck is Inquiry-Based Learning?

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What the Heck Is Inquiry-Based Learning?

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Teachers use inquiry-based learning to combat the “dunno” -- a chronic problem in student engagement. Check out these four steps for creating inquiry-based curriculum.

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From Edutopia

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From Teacher-Guided to Student-Driven

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FOR TEACHERS: Inquiry-Based Learning - YouTube

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Inquiry-Based Learning: The Power of Asking the Right Questions

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Inquiry-Based Learning: The Power of Asking the Right Questions

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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"I Wonder" Questions: Harnessing the Power of Inquiry

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"I Wonder" Questions: Harnessing the Power of Inquiry

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.