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Achieve

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This briefresource about phenomena was developed for educators, and describes how phenomena can be used in NGSS classrooms to drive teaching and learning.

In addition, the three minute video interview below with Brian Reiser introduces phenomena and their connection to the NGSS and three-dimensional learning:
Resource about Engineering Problems External Resources About Phenomena

Qualities of a good anchor phenomenon- a resource from the Research + Practice Collaboratory

www.ngssphenomena.com - a collection of interesting phenomena that could be instructionally productive

Video discussing phenomena in the context of evaluating instructional materials. From Achieve and the Teaching Channel.

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This briefresource about phenomena was developed for educators, and describes how phenomena can be used in NGSS classrooms to drive teaching and learning.

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Georgia

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Georgia Science Teachers Association - GSE Phenomena

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communications@georgiascienceteacher.org if you have any questions about this resource.

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Science Intervention with coaching support

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Science Intervention with coaching support

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Wayne County Mi Excel

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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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Slides from Ed Camp Downriver Conference

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Slides from Ed Camp Downriver Conference

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Engineering is incorporated into every class K-12

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Engineering is incorporated into every class K-12

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Video and support materials

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Engineering - STEM Education - Science - Curriculum Subjects - Educational Services - Wayne RESA

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Wayne RESA (WRESA) is committed to excellence in service and accessibility of web content for all of our clients and staff. As we work to improve these services, we are developing a plan to upgrade our website to be consistent with standards required for ADA compliance.

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MS Example from the Teaching Channel

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In my role as a facilitator of professional learning for science teachers, I'm often asked "What do the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) look like when they're translated into classroom practice, and how do we help teachers get there?" Along with some innovative collaborative partner institutions and generous funders, we at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) have been working on two projects to answer these questions. Thanks to Teaching Channel, we captured some of this work on video to share with the larger science education community.

Instructional Materials Designed for NGSS

AMNH, in collaboration with curriculum development experts from the SEPUP team (Science Education for Public Understanding Program) at the Lawrence Hall of Science (University of California, Berkeley), has developed a middle school ecosystems unit, designed to meet a bundle of PEs from LS2 and ESS3.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, we're just beginning our third and final year of field testing the curriculum. Our teachers are trying to help us understand how high quality instructional materials designed for NGSS, coupled with professional learning, can support teachers with shifting their practice. At the time we made these videos, New York State had not adopted the new standards yet ( they finally did in December 2016), and it was interesting to see brave teachers taking the risk to use a curriculum with their students unlike anything they had used before.

What you see in Lauren DeFino and William Leou's classrooms are New York City students experiencing three-dimensional learning for the first time. We wanted to capture what this process looks like for both children and teachers.

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

William's Classroom

The lesson you're seeing in the videos of William's classroom comes from Chapter 4 of the curriculum. At this point in the unit, students have already learned about relationships in ecosystems, how to use models to explain how matter and energy flow in them, and how limiting resources can affect the ecosystem.

In Chapter 4, students learn about an invasive species, the zebra mussel, that has affected the Hudson River ecosystem. They engage in modeling and data analysis to better understand the impact this invasive species has had on the larger system. Students have already been introduced to the argument scaffold at this point and will now, in Engaging in Argument From Evidence, create an argument about the ecosystem.

William noticed his students struggling with using the Argument Tool, along with making sense of their data, so what we're seeing in Using the Argument Tool is how he's coaching and supporting students to help them understand their graphs and how to use that information to support or refute an argument.

Lauren's Classroom

The two videos from Lauren's classroom show the first lesson in the final chapter of the ecosystems unit. This involves students applying the scientific principles they learned about in previous chapters to design solutions to problems ( MS-ESS3-3). In Supporting the NGSS: The "Engage" Model, students are presented with a scenario in order to activate prior knowledge and pique curiosity through discourse.

In Engineering in an NGSS Classroom, students design solutions for dealing with a beetle infestation. They also engage in evaluating competing solutions based on criteria and constraints related to environmental, social, and economic concerns ( MS-LS2-5). Research on how students learn science shows the importance of surfacing students' current conceptions, so what we see in the videos is how Lauren elicits her students' ideas about engineering and design solutions. Instead of an anchor phenomenon for the sequence of lessons, she presents them with an engaging, relatable, real-world problem and students revisit this problem, a design challenge, throughout the chapter.

Developing NGSS-Designed Curriculum

After participating in the curriculum field test, Lauren and William also participated in a professional learning institute to support them with developing their own rigorous and coherent units designed for the NGSS. With funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, AMNH along with BSCS and WestEd's K-12 Alliance, developed a set of resources called the Five Tools and Processes for Translating the NGSS into Instruction and Classroom Assessment. The Five Tools include facilitation guides, slides, digital templates, and handouts for professional learning leaders to support teachers in helping the vision for the standards come to life in the classroom.

Engineering in an NGSS Classroom

Tom Jenkins and I wrote a blog post last year about the Tool 1 card decks and the Tool 3 classroom scenarios. In the new Tool 4 video on Learning Sequences above, and in this new video on Analysis Guides, Jody Bintz and I are working with our NYC teachers on analyzing the same Tool 3 "Ms. Rivera" classroom scenario for the three dimensions of the NGSS.

The Tool 4 digital template and Tool 4 Analysis Guides help teachers use the BSCS 5E Instructional Model to develop phenomena-based sequences of three-dimensional lessons. All of the resources and professional learning tools are available freely online.

The six videos in this series can be used by both teachers and professional learning facilitators to help develop a shared vision of how to move the new standards into practice.
_________________________________________________________ Dora Kastel is a leader of professional development programs at the American Museum of Natural History, primarily focusing on supporting science teachers with the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core literacy strategies. She is currently co‐project director of an NSF-funded curriculum and research study titled "Moving Next Generation Science Standards into Practice: A Middle School Ecology Unit and Professional Development Model" in collaboration with SEPUP and the University of Connecticut. She is also a 2016-2017 CADRE fellow. Prior to her work at AMNH, she was a middle school science and math teacher for six years in East Harlem. She earned her B.A. in Geology from the University of Pennsylvania, along with her M.A. in Science Education and Ed.M. in Mathematics Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She recently returned to Teachers College, and is a first-year Ph.D. student in Science Education. Connect with Dora on Twitter: @Dora_Kastel.

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In my role as a facilitator of professional learning for science teachers, I'm often asked "What do the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) look like when they're translated into classroom practice, and how do we help teachers get there?"

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Engaging in Argument from Evidence, Teaching Channel

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Thought starters

How does the argument tool support students in making claims?

How did Mr. Leou help students to understand the data?

How do you see students applying the learning they did earlier in the unit?

School Details

Brooklyn Secondary School For Collaborative Studie
610 Henry Street
Brooklyn NY 11231

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Thought starters How does the argument tool support students in making claims? How did Mr. Leou help students to understand the data? How do you see students applying the learning they did earlier in the unit?

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NGSX

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NGSX

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Characteristics of Position Driven Discussions

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Characteristics of Position Driven Discussions

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NGSX

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Guskey

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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This family of tools was developed to help students to construct and revise evidence-based explanations and models for complex phenomena. Face-to-face tools are used with students (that's where the name comes from) to represent and work on their current ideas. These representations are often put on the walls of the classroom so that students' current thinking can be made public and revised over time. So, these tools don't just display thinking, they help organize and refine student reasoning as well. Some types of face-to-face tools are:

Small group models (if you are interested in the practice of scientific modeling, this tool is for you)

Whole group consensus models (great also for scientific modeling)

Summary tables (students keep track of the sense they make of each activity during a unit)

Sticky-notes (for adding to ideas on models, questioning ideas, revising, etc.)

Competing hypotheses (for helping students see how different hypotheses are supported-or not-in response to new evidence and ideas)

Explanation checklists (negotiated by teacher and students about what should be included in final evidence-based explanations)

It's important to realize that ideas written on face-to-face tools "belong" to students are supposed to change over time as the unit progresses. See below for descriptions of these six types of tools.

Written guide to face-to-face tools .

The most versatile way to make students' thinking visible is the small group model. Students in groups create their own initial models at the beginning of a unit, then revise these over the course of a unit. These could be representations of the anchoring phenomenon that the teacher has introduced on the first day, or the teacher might ask students to draw a model that is about an event or process similar to the anchoring phenomenon that will be the focus of an entire unit.

￼For example, one of our 5th grade classes was studying the physics of sound. The teacher had students draw a model of a singer who was able to break a glass with just his voice (on right, click to see full view). To the right is a "what if" model of the singer standing a few feet away from the glass and trying it again. This model had been revised from an earlier version in which there was no depiction of energy or air particles.

One of our high school biology classes was studying ecosystems and in particular the question of why a population of hares in a northern forest would go up and down in regular cycles every 11 years. The "concept map" diagram you see here (click to see full view) was drawn later in the unit. Its one of the few examples where one of our models does not show the passage of time (before and after, or before, during, after).

In the third model, this group of 8th grade students were depicting the observable and unobservable events behind the mysterious implosion of a railroad tanker car. It had been steam cleaned and then accidentally sealed shut. This is an excellent example of something we advocate for: the before, during and after drawings of a phenomenon. This is a revised drawing done in the middle of a unit after students had learned about kinetic molecular motion and atmospheric pressure.
3 Strategies for focusing students on the phenomenon and eliciting the most reasoning from them:
1. We have learned that the before-during-after drawings are particularly helpful for students to show what they think is happening. It requires students to show much more of their thinking. Many of the most compelling classroom conversations about a phenomenon have been about what happens before it starts, or after it stops. Why does something stop happening? Always interesting.

2. Our teachers and their students have also come up with other novel ways to show the passage of time during an event. In a high school physics classroom studying force and motion, the teacher had students draw what unobservable events and processes were at work as a young man did a back flip after running up to a wall and pushing off of it (shown to students on a video). They decided to use a single frame to draw the man at five different stages of the run-including him standing still at the beginning.

3. We have also found that for micro-level events, it helps if you ask students to "draw what you would see if you had microscope eyes." It sounds simple, but works well.

We now offer a major caution. Make sure the model is about a particular event or process with some context to it. By context we mean that the event or process happens in a particular time or place or under particular conditions, and that all these special conditions matter to the explanation.

If you ask students to model a generic phenomenon (like the water cycle or how levers work) they will simply reproduce textbook explanations. We refer to this as "posterizing" someone else's science ideas. Posterizing is not intellectually challenging, all the students in the class would likely have the same models drawn.
Helpful advice from our teacher colleagues who have successfully used small group models:

Always ask students to draw both observable and unobservable features. The exception here might be the initial models of young elementary students.

Agreement about drawing conventions is important. After students have drawn an initial model, have a conversation with them about how the class should represent certain ideas, so that everyone understands each other's drawings (i.e. What do we all agree that arrows will mean? How will we agree to draw molecules? How will we show that time is passing?).

As an equity move, have each student within a group use a different color marker or tell students you want to see everyone's handwriting somewhere on the model.

For drawings that may be hard to sketch out, provide a template with outlines for students to use as a guide. When we ask student, for example, to draw what they think is happening during homeostasis (such as regulating body heat in humans), we provide an outline showing a human body before, during and after a heat stroke-that's all they need to get started. Their drawings are then a bit more comprehensible to the teacher and to peers in other groups.￼

Have students change the model substantively only once in the middle of the unit, then at the end.

To make comparisons between models more manageable for students (since there may be several in one classroom) and to promote equal participation, have each student in a group visit other groups' models to look for how one particular relationship in the model differs across these drawings.

When students are less experienced with how to draw and change models, the teacher can start a unit by focusing everyone on a single drawing or set of drawings that the class as a whole "owns."

A whole class consensus model can be started immediately after students have had some introductory experience with a puzzling phenomenon. On a piece of poster paper, or the whiteboard, the teacher can draw a very basic pictorial representation of the phenomenon that students are exploring. Then, with input from students, the teacher can add labels on this drawing that indicate students' hypotheses about underlying events or processes that influence the phenomenon. These are the students' initial hypotheses in diagrammatic form. The teacher coordinates drawing this initial consensus model, with help and input from students. As the students engage in upcoming rounds of activity and discussions, they should decide how they want to change the consensus model.

One example here is a 4-part time-lapse model of the distillation of a soft drink. The students had written on sticky notes what they thought was happening at each stage, and at each place on the distillation apparatus. Note there are some places where students are not venturing an idea about what is happening that they cannot see.

At first, these drawings should be really spare (simple, not cluttered). Students may have only idea "fragments" to contribute that are not necessarily contradictory to the scientific explanation, only very simple. These are ideal for noting on the consensus model, because they can be built upon and changed later as students learn more. Also, the teacher should use student language in the initial model rather than imposing scientific language at this point. It's their model.
Helpful advice from our teacher colleagues who have successfully used whole class consensus models:

All of the recommendations from the "small group models" section also apply the whole class consensus models.

If there are clear misconceptions that students initially think should be part of this model, then you'll have to think of a way to label these as "still in doubt"- you can, for example, label them (or all the ideas) with large question marks to indicate the tentative nature of these ideas.

Next to the drawing, or below it, there should be space for "Questions we still have about..." This will tell you a lot about what parts of the phenomenon they are interested in. You should capitalize on these questions in your instruction and use their questions to identify where their gaps currently are.

Use small group models more regularly than whole class models. The small group models reveal more student thinking, generate a sense of ownership, and require more intellectual work.

If you want to try a more manageable version of whole class models, you can do "testing a list of hypotheses." These hypotheses are not full explanatory models, but they would get you and your students on the path to representing tentative ideas, then testing those ideas and changing them over time. The illustration we use here is what causes the seasons?

You can list potential hypotheses that students initially have about "what's going on" in an anchoring event. These answer the question, "What might be contributing to or causing X?" These hypotheses can be very simple to start with. They are usually a mix of one-sentence observations, inferences, and mini-theories, but they are not full blown explanations. Don't deny students' contributions because they are brief or because they aren't using scientific language.

Generating this list might be followed by probing for more pieces of the causal story. Place a question mark behind each hypotheses at first so students understand that the hypotheses are not yet supported by evidence. As you then engage in cycles of reading, activity, and connecting with everyday experiences, you can gather evidence and ideas that can be applied to the list of hypotheses. Some hypotheses might get crossed out as implausible, others might be supported, others might be elaborated upon as time goes on, and some hypotheses might be linked with others.

After a couple of activities and readings, you may be ready to ask students to start a public conversation about how the evidence they've generated can support or contradict a hypothesis. One way to do this is to place on the board (or a piece of poster paper) two competing explanations for the anchoring phenomenon or puzzling question that you've based your unit on. Ideally, one of these hypotheses can be a partial explanation that some of your students had originally favored, but is not complete or lacks scientific cohesion. The other explanation should be scientifically coherent, and ideally also generated by your students. Under each explanation is a list of the activities or readings the students have done recently.

Then, in small groups, students are given a prompt from a lab activity or reading they have done. On this prompt can be some statement about what the key ideas were that students have learned from the activity or reading-this could have been generated by the students themselves when they did the activity. All the small groups can then spend 5 or 10 minutes deciding if what they had learned from that activity or reading supports one or both of the explanations, or if it contradicts one or both of the explanations. If it supports an explanation, they can write on a yellow sticky note why it supports a particular explanation. If it contradicts or does not support an explanation they can use a blue sticky and explain why. At the end of this round a student from each group comes up to the board and in the box that represents that particular activity or reading (below one of the explanations) they can place their sticky note. This could be done for example on this list of hypotheses used by a 3rd grade group of students studying sound-How could a singer break a glass with just the energy from his voice?

The teacher then reviews the sticky notes with students and moves on to the next type of evidence. There may be 1 or 2 rounds of this activity during a class period. This can be repeated two or three times during a unit, and the sticky note table can remain up in the room in the interim.

Caution! This activity does not, by itself, help students come up with a rich causal explanation; you should couple this activity with going back to some whole group model or small group models, and have students periodically re-write or re- draw their causal explanations.

Models are meant to be changed. Models can have ideas added to them or ideas deleted from them. They can have relationships changed. The ideas embedded in them can be questioned by students. Students learn from both suggesting changes and receiving suggestions for change.

We have found that "sticky-notes" are the best way for the whole class to experience how ideas can shift with new information, evidence, or logical argument. These are small, color-coded notes that are applied by students directly to the models. The color represents the type of comment one wants to make about some aspect of the model. The comment is written on the note, rather than on the model itself. Our teachers learned to use the notes, in part because re-writing on the model itself got sloppy, and the owners of the models felt that their ideas were being "over-written."

We have also found that with some scaffolding, students become quite capable of offering productive forms of commentary. This is partially because the color codes guide and constrain the types of comments. There are no color codes, for example, for commenting on how artistic the drawing is or how legible the handwriting is. Instead, we generally group comments under three categories: "Adding an idea," "Revising an idea," or "Posing a question." In the model of a man doing a back-flip (for high school physics), the orange sticky note on the lower left is adding on an idea that came from an activity the students had just done: We think according to Station 4 with the different surfaces, the type of surface matters because friction matters. The type of surface you kick off of (wall) determines how hard or easy it is to overcome static friction. This caused the group that received the comment to make changes in their model to make it more accurate and to reflect more of what they had learned about friction.

Students are not familiar with talking (or writing) this way. We use sentence frames as a way to guide their writing. We have seen that students not only use these sentence frames, but after a few weeks, they begin to take up the "grammar" of science talk in their own speech with peers and with the teacher.
Helpful advice from our teacher colleagues who have successfully used sticky notes

Because students are reluctant to comment on the drawings of others, we have had them "practice" by placing notes on their own models after a couple of lessons. They learn how to look at their own models, and how to write notes in full sentences that provide reasons for requesting possible changes.

We always provide sentence frames for them to use. It helps them use scientific ways of talking/writing to express the rationale for possible changes. It also keeps comments from being trivial. We have yet to find the "perfect" sentence frames!

One of the sentence frames should be about a puzzle or a question that a group has, this opens the door to really new ideas or to identify gaps in the potential explanation that could not be expressed in any other way.

Don't have too many comments on each model, only one or two groups should really comment on another group's particular model.

Spend time, after the commentary, for the owners of the model to read the notes and decide if they should act upon the suggestions.

The summary table is one of the most indispensable tools in ambitious science teaching. The first shown here is for a middle school unit about "Why are there no seasons if you live near the equator?", the second is from a high school physical science class on whether ozone is helpful or harmful (we note that this is a good question, but not a phenomenon). Because a model is supposed to change over time, and in response to new evidence or arguments, students need to have some record of what they have done over the past few days, in order to draw upon different activities or readings. Without some representation of what they have done or read, they would have to depend on memory, and each student's memory is different. So, just as scientists do, the teacher can help students keep a record of activities and ideas.

We have found that the best way to keep a record of activity and ideas is to create a table with four columns-1) Activities we did, 2) Patterns or observations, what happened?, 3) What do you think caused these patterns or observations?, 4) How do these patterns help us think about the essential question or puzzling phenomenon? As you can see in the figures included here, there are many variations created by our teachers. They are all adaptations that are useful for their particular classroom needs.

The table is placed on a wall in the classroom and it remains up throughout the unit. After each round of reading and activity, students are in charge of discussing how the activity helps them think about the phenomenon, and filling in one complete row. As the unit progresses, more and more rows get filled in and, ideally, students start to piece together a more coherent and complete explanation by looking "down" the fourth column.

Some teachers argue that they don't have enough wall space to keep summary tables for every class period, however there are always ways around this by using a flip chart or simply making space on your walls.
Helpful advice from our teacher colleagues who have successfully used Summary Tables:

Don't put too many columns into your summary table, and don't have more than five rows.

The students should be in charge of negotiating what goes in each column after a reading or activity. At the elementary level the teacher would take more responsibility for crafting the sentences.

Don't wait until the end of a unit to fill in the rows (we've seen this happen), it is unhelpful and confusing for students. Fill in each row after each activity.

The "gotta-have" checklist is a set of ideas or concepts they think must be included in the final explanation. This is more constructed by students than by the teacher. This may start with very simple statements or even just terms, but the list should grow over time- added to by students with occasional prompting by the teacher. Again, as the students engage in cycles of reading, activity, and connecting with their everyday experiences, they add to this checklist. If they are missing some key elements of the final causal explanation, it should alert you as the teacher to modify your instruction to address these missing pieces.The first example is a list developed by high school students on the explanation for why a population of penguins had declined over time in the Antarctic. The "Gotta-have" explanation checklist is not a list of vocabulary words that have to be included in drawn or written explanation. As the checklist is developed, lesson by lesson, it needs to be composed of ideas, or relationships that the students now believe are important to a final explanation. These items on the checklist are not "giving away answers." They remind students of what is important to talk about or draw out, and these are ideas that they have come up with themselves during the unit. The second example is a "gotta-have" checklist that was developed by students during a unit on the Gas Laws. The anchoring phenomenon for the unit was a railroad tanker car that had imploded after being steam cleaned, then mistakenly sealed up.

Helpful advice from our teacher colleagues who have successfully used "Gotta-have" checklists:

An explanation checklist can be started at the beginning of the unit, but should be added to or subtracted from every few days as the students learn more.

Students should co-develop the list with you-it is a representation of their thinking, not yours.

Keep away from making it a vocabulary checklist. Including the word "how" (see Gas Laws checklist above") sometimes helps you as a teacher express the items as ideas, rather than as words.

When students are creating their final explanatory models, make sure they have access to the checklist-it works very well as a common set of ideas that the teacher can refer to as he/she circulates around the room and supports the construction of the final models.

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This family of tools was developed to help students to construct and revise evidence-based explanations and models for complex phenomena. Face-to-face tools are used with students (that's where the name comes from) to represent and work on their current ideas.

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Appendix F

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page 79-83 of book

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Contributors

Description

What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences?

Ready, Set, Science! guides the way with an account of the groundbreaking and comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade. Based on the recently released National Research Council report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, this book summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sciences and builds detailed cases of science educators at work to make the implications of research clear, accessible, and stimulating for a broad range of science educators.

Ready, Set, Science! is filled with classroom case studies that bring to life the research findings and help readers to replicate success. Most of these stories are based on real classroom experiences that illustrate the complexities that teachers grapple with every day. They show how teachers work to select and design rigorous and engaging instructional tasks, manage classrooms, orchestrate productive discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students, and help students make their thinking visible using a variety of representational tools.

This book will be an essential resource for science education practitioners and contains information that will be extremely useful to everyone ï¿½including parents ï¿½directly or indirectly involved in the teaching of science.

Topics

Suggested Citation

National Research Council. 2008. Ready, Set, SCIENCE!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/11882.

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Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

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Ready, Set, SCIENCE!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms

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What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? Ready, Set, Science!

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Vignette: Description of Tanker Car Modeling Example

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Vignette: Description of Tanker Car Modeling Example

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NGSS Case Study 1, Appendix

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Tanker Car Phenomenon Example of Modeling

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Tanker Car Phenomenon Example of Modeling

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Classroom Footage from Ambitious Science Teaching

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High School * Gas Laws * Legacy Series

These videos are part of a Legacy Series, meaning that they were produced earlier than the other case studies you see on this website. These have been so popular with our viewers that we've included them here.

This is a high school Chemistry class and Bethany is teaching a unit on the Gas Laws.

Traditionally in Chemistry students learn about the behavior of gasses through investigating gas laws. But a law is a description of a phenomenon and if taught through a "lens of laws" students focus their attention on correlations among variables. For example, as pressure increases volume decreases. Theories provide explanations for laws. Explaining gas laws requires a keen understanding of molecular movement and how energy influences this movement. One of the challenges is that many of the gases we interact with on a daily basis are not visible. For this unit of instruction Bethany chose to have students reason with familiar gases first. She posed a puzzling phenomenon about a railroad tanker car that collapsed after being steam-cleaned and sealed.

Students developed initial models about what could cause the tanker to collapse and then did experiments with pop cans crushing with the aid of steam to add to the initial models. The pop can experiments helped students link an observable phenomenon with theoretical components such as the role of phase changes and the speed of gas molecules- but to reason with the role of pressure inside and outside of a system students did additional experiments and read about pressure. Over time students constructed a rich explanation for the oil tanker collapsing, while also considering similar phenomena. Students were then ready to apply what they learned to less similar observable phenomena. Bethany chose a set of relevant phenomena to students' lives and had students explain modifications made to race cars based on their understandings of the gas laws. Students could choose to think about modifications to tires or engines.

We get oriented to the teacher, her students, and to the unit she is about to teach.

Here we get oriented to the teacher, her students and school, and to the unit she is about to teach. Bethany explains her goals and how she intends to shape the unit.

Bethany's practice is characterized by a constant press for why explanations. Each activity aims to add to an explanation and each interaction with students either starts with a press for why or help students first explain what, and how, then why. Students constantly transition back and forth between observable and unobservable features of an explanation.

Eliciting students ideas about gas behavior

Activities:

1) Elicitation of student ideas. Describe what you already know about how gasses behave. (Think about: How do they move? What affects their movement? What is a gas?)
2) Explaining an oil tanker crushing phenomenon. Students watch video. Unprompted they start thinking about why this happened. Students then record initial ideas. Students then work in groups to draw before, middle and after pictures.
3) Whole‐class debrief. Students share posters of their initial ideas.
4) Homework: Students did a reading about the behavior of gases.
Discussion questions for teachers: 1) What general ideas do most students seem to have about the behavior of gasses? Which of these ideas can be built on? 2) How does Bethany uncover students' ideas? What kinds of questions does she ask when students give incomplete responses or reveal an alternative conception? What does she do when she first enters a group/ exits a group?

Activities
1) Warm-up Yesterday you heard different groups present their ideas about why the tanker crushed. You also read about the behavior of gases as homework. What are 3 new ideas you have about why the tanker is crushing? Teacher reviews student ideas from previous day.

2) Making an initial consensus model. Teacher reviews student posters using 2 guiding questions: A) Make a list of what's causing the tanker to crush. B) Does anything seem to be linked together? Does one thing happening seem to cause another thing to happen?
3) Pop Can Activity: Back pocket questions are used to a) help students link together parts of the causal story b) identify gaps in the students' causal stories and c) help students begin to think about how they could further study the phenomenon.
Discussion question for teachers: In the video Bethany works with two groups as they consider the relationship between phase changes and pressure changes. How does she tailor her back‐pocket questions in response to each group's line of thinking?

Explaining pop can crushing.

1) Warm‐up, Day 3. "How is the pop can similar to the crushing tanker? How is it different?"
2) Examining variables. Teacher helps students hypothesize about 5 experiments inspired by student ideas from the previous day.
3) Pop can Activity II. As students conduct experiments the teacher poses back pocket questions to a) help students link together parts of the causal story b) help students identify gaps in their causal stories.

Experiment #1: Amount of water in the can

Experiment #2: Temperature of the water bath

Experiment #3: Amount of time on the hot plate

Experiment #4: Volume of the can

Experiment #5: Amount of seal

4) Warm‐up, Day 4. Teacher prompts students to consider 4 key ideas in their explanations. The warm‐up asks students to "Choose one of the following ideas and explain how it relates to the experiment you did yesterday.

Temperature change‐ speed of molecules

Temperature change‐ phase of matter

Pressure inside

Pressure outside

5) Complete pop can Activity II. As students finish experiments the teacher poses back pocket questions to a) help students link together 4 parts of the causal story.

Day 5. Think back to your experiment with the cans.State your results as a rule. How did changing the manipulated variable affect the amount of crushing? When _________________the can crushed more because ____________________.

Reporting out and connecting experimental findings. Teacher coordinates discussion of findings across groups. Teacher describes what happens and presses student to say why.
Discussion questions for teachers: 1) Record the questions Bethany asks, group them into conceptual categories, and then consider her reasoning for asking these rounds of questions in this particular order. 2) Which questions seemed to be most productive for helping students move their thinking forward?

This video continues activities from the previous scenes...

Increasing content understanding about air pressure

Increasing content understanding about air pressure (as opposing forces) and relationships with volume, and temperature.
PV=nRT

1) Increasing content understanding about air pressure. Students struggled to reason with internal and external air pressure. Teacher reviews homework assignment about pressure. Teacher has students show work to class as a way to "work on student ideas." Then teacher helps students reason with forces and pressure.

2) Balancing Act. Teacher asks students to reason with number of molecules, temperature, volume, and pressure (in terms of pulling and balancing internal and external pressure) throughout 4 experiments.

Station 1 Balloon Blow up

Station 2 Marshmallow vs. Pebble

Station 3 Expanding Balloon

Station 4 Balloon in Flask

3) Warm‐up, day 6. Draw a diagram to explain why this tire would inflate. Draw the air molecules outside the tire, draw the air molecules inside the tire. Use arrows to indicate where pressure is higher or lower .

4) Returning to air pressure experiments and explanations. Students completed diagrams and questions for the air pressure experiments.
Discussion questions for teachers: 1) What are different strategies Bethany uses to plan for as well as in‐the‐moment work on students' ideas? 2) What kinds of ideas do students wrestle with during the experiments? Do the conversations move beyond procedural talk? When, how?

Applying new ideas to a model

1) Warm up, day 7.
Students review air pressure experiments. Specifically the relationships between pressure and the a) number of molecules, b) volume and c) temperature.

2) Adding to the model. Teacher facilitates a whole class discussion about the information that needs to be added to their initial model. Then students work in small groups to add to their models of the can crushing for the experiment they conducted. NOTE: The teacher notices students are trying to apply ideas about kinetic molecular theory to the can crushing experiment. They reason with partial understandings about the speed of molecules, how the temperature influences speed, why the space is important to molecular movement. The teacher helps students link these ideas to the experiment but also directs their focus to a different but related underlying explanation (the number of molecules) to explain why the can crushes.

Applying new ideas to a model

Warm up, day 8
1) In response to how students were reasoning with molecules, the teacher designed a warm up to help students think about the number of molecules at each stage in the can crushing. "Say I started with 10 water molecules (X's) in the bottom of the can and 20 air molecules (O's) in the can and then I heated it up to boiling and let it boil for 2 minutes. Draw a picture of a can and mark where you think the X's and O's would be after these 2 minutes."

2) Adding to the model. Students return to diagrams and continue to add information to their models using a checklist with key concepts for the students to include.

Discussion questions for teachers a) How is the explanation check list developed How is it used? b) Generally speaking, compared to days 1 & 2 how have students built on their original ideas? And what new ideas are they entertaining now?

Using mathematics to understand gasses

Increasing content understanding about number and speed of molecules and relationships with pressure, volume, and temperature.
PV=nRT

1) Warm up. The teacher asks a warm up that helps connect ideas about kinetic molecular theory with the gas laws. "When you flip over the can into cold water, describe what happens to the phaseand speed of the gas molecules (both X's and the O's) inside."

2) Pressure and Collisions. Students talk about correlations between pressure and number of collisions on a container and then reason with three ways the pressure/number of collisions can decrease-the amount of space (V), the number of molecules (n) and the temperature (T). Students then look at these relationships in a computer simulation. http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/index.php?topic=25

3) Can you compress water? Teacher helps student reason with the differences between air molecules and water molecules. Need to think about pressure of water in can puts on the can and why this is an important part of the explanation for why the can does not crush.

4) Return to posters to add new knowledge. Teacher highlights 2 parts of the explanation checklist that students are generally not attending to in their explanations. She also provides each group with 3 sheets of fill in the blank sentences to make sure students are reasoning with a full explanation for each of the 3 can crushing stages.
Discussion questions for teachers 1) Bethany adds an additional scaffold to the check list by giving students sentence starters. How does this shift the ways students participate in class?

Generalizing to the behavior of all gases

Piecing it all together.

1) Teacher facilitates whole class conversation of a full explanation of the tanker Generalizing to the crushing.

2) Review of learning. Teacher has students refer back to initial explanations. behavior of all gasses.

3) The Behavior of Gases. Teacher reviews general ideas about what influences the behavior of gases and bridges to scientific language. Then the teacher introduces the Ideal Gas Law.

4) Focus on correlation between P & V. Pressure Volume Student do activity with syringe and scale to Pressing students for evidence examine the relationship between P & V. Students graph results and talk about an inverse relationship. based explanations

5) Warm up, Day 11. Explain from data the previous day how we know that pressure and volume are considered inversely proportional.

6) Review lab and introduce Boyle's Law. Teacher introduces the idea of P1V1=P2V2. Teacher asks questions that help students reason conceptually and mathematically with the equation. Students then record notes on a master table with the ideal gas law broken down in to 3 different relationships.

7) Volume and Temperature. Teacher introduces the idea of Kelvin by having students think back to volume and pressure lab and whether or not 0 pressure or 0 volume is possible. Students then do mathematical calculations to examine the relationship.

8) Warm up, Day 12. Your car tire ahs 10L of air and it's 0 degrees Celsius outside. Later that day the temperature has increased to 26 degrees Celsius. What will happen to the volume of the tire? Why? 9) Review of Volume and Temperature. Students take notes on Charles's Law. V1/T1=V2/T2.

10) Pressure and Temperature. Students take notes on P1/T1=P2/T2 and then do practice problems.
Discussion questions for teachers: 1) Thought experiment: Typically in Chemistry students learn each gas law and do calculations. Compare this to Bethany's "concept first" approach. Also think about the difference between learning about a theory about the behavior of gasses versus laws.

Continues from the previous video...

This video picks up from the previous one.

Applying gas behavior principles to car engines

Applying gas behavior principles to car engines.

1) Warm up, Day 13. What are the gases in the engine? What gas(es) are present during intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust?

2) Engine Modification Challenge. Students select 3 modifications and describe why each modification helps a car have more power. They also need to describe why a pressure sensor is needed on tires. Students read background information on each modification and complete a fill in the blank form that helps students reason with P,V,T and n. tire pressure monitoring system bore out cylinders cold air intake high performance exhaust system intercooler nitrous oxide system turbocharger supercharger

3) Warm up, Day 14. Why is getting more oxygen into the engine beneficial? (Think about the combustion reaction).

4) Summative assessment. Gas Quiz.

Final interview with Bethany

Final interview with Bethany

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High School * Gas Laws * Legacy Series These videos are part of a Legacy Series, meaning that they were produced earlier than the other case studies you see on this website. These have been so popular with our viewers that we've included them here.

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HS video, Kristin Mayer is using the talk moves in her Physical Science Class

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HS video, Kristin Mayer is using the talk moves in her Physical Science Class

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To see more of her classroom videos go to http://ngss.nsta.org/ngss-videos.aspx

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Developing and Using Models of Electrical Interactions: What NGSS Looks Like in the Classroom

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Check out classroom videos of teachers practicing 3 Dimensional lessons

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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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Nextgenstorylines.org

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

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For an educator, understanding and using anchoring phenomena in science instruction can be challenging. Elementary teacher Liza Rickey describes her "phenomenal journey" to successfully incorporating anchoring phenomena. Presented like a travel documentary, her insights will compel you to read to the end.

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I am the type of educator who gets very excited about new strategies, new and innovative technology, and new activities for students. However, I was more nervous about than excited about to choosing phenomena for my science units. I felt tremendous pressure to pick the "right" ones, ones that were engaging and exciting, while matching the standards precisely. Like all teachers would do, I started asking my peers how they were managing this work and began experimenting with phenomena myself. I'll share a bit about my journey in embedding phenomena in the elementary grades.
Call to Adventure
The first time I heard about phenomena was at an NSTA conference a few years ago when a presenter displayed an energy stick, which I now know is a toy used to explore the science of electricity and circuits. The presenter only briefly explained what the object was, and I was puzzled about what she meant.

In small groups, we experimented with different ways to activate the toy's lights and buzzers, asking many questions and constructing explanations. I quickly learned that phenomena were events that caused students to ask questions and explore underlying explanations and concepts of the unit. It was an engaging and memorable experience to do a lesson that was "flipped" in this way, and I wanted more. The following lessons provide opportunities for students to construct scientific understanding and meaning of phenomena.
The Starting Line
This year, I collaborated with a first-grade teacher who was working on a light unit. I wanted to start small in my phenomena dabbling, so I picked a lesson that used a light box to explore the concept that light is needed to see objects. I gathered all the first graders together and asked one student to turn off all the lights.

I asked the students if they could still see now that the lights were off. They noticed that windows, digital clocks, and hallways let in light. Some students noted how different things looked with the lights off; one student even said the colors were different. I used this discussion to engage them in thinking about how they are able to see the world around them, without giving any feedback or verifying if their answers were correct.

We did the light box activity, and students compared what they saw in the dark box with what they observed when looking in the box with a flashlight. After constructing diagrams in our journals, we returned to the original phenomenon about the ability to see with the lights off. Students revised their thinking and shared about other types of light that were still in the room that allowed them to see. Their experiences and discourse led the learning, not the teacher instructing on the content.
The Challenges
Finding a phenomenon for a lesson was a much easier starting place, but next I had to determine how to find one to anchor an entire unit. I had some concerns: What if the class loses interest or the phenomenon does not cover all the standards I would like to include? I set out to find answers, this time with a fifth-grade unit on plants that was out of date and not aligned to the NGSS.

"How do plants grow?"

"Why did China wage the Sparrow War in 1958?

Students plant the same seeds

Students chose 1 of 4 manipulated variables

Students track growth of plants

Students created a scientific process board to communicate findings

Students research struggles farmers face

Students generate a list of issues that decrease crop yields

Student chose one issue to address

Students research and design a solution to the problem

Students plant seeds with designed solution and the traditional planting method

Students construct a presentation to share findings with other students, parents, teachers, and guest scientists as a symposium

Students then revisit Sparrow War to design an alternate plan to killing sparrows

The Revelation
Though this work can be messy and uncertain, I recommend that teachers just embrace it. I realized no "perfect" phenomenon exists for every single unit. Our world, our work, and our classrooms are constantly changing, and so must we.

I have found, though, that perusing books, videos, or photographs can spark ideas for new phenomena. In fact, while writing this article, I scrolled through old photos and was inspired by the rainbow reflection on my son's shoes, the hummingbird sitting on the feeder, the red striations of the rocks of Iceland, and so much more. Why not invite students and families into this process of noticing phenomena?
The Return and Reflection
I learned a tremendous amount this year, and have revised my own thinking multiple times. I am still figuring all this out, but I am determined to continue my journey of using phenomena-based instruction to provide excellent, rigorous, and equitable experience to all students.
My Learning This Year
Resources:

Getting Familiar with Phenomena - Planning for Engagement Primer

Video of Phenomena - Teaching Channel

Examples of Phenomena - Many videos and photos

Checklist for Phenomena by STEM Teaching Tools
Liza Rickey is a science and STEM curriculum specialist in the Issaquah School District in Issaquah, Washington, who has taught elementary students for the past 15 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in zoology and a master's degree in education from the University of Washington and is an alumna of the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy and the Teachers College Writing Institute. She recently finished her administration certification and is excited to be a part of Teaching Channel's Next Gen Science Squad. Connect with her on Twitter at @lizarickey.
This article was featured in the June issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction. Click here to access other articles from the June issue on Anchoring Phenomena: What Are They and Why Do They Matter? Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA's NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs ( members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

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I am the type of educator who gets very excited about new strategies, new and innovative technology, and new activities for students. However, I was more nervous about than excited about to choosing phenomena for my science units. I felt tremendous pressure to pick the "right" ones, ones that were engaging and exciting, while matching the standards precisely.

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Using Phenomena in NGSS-Designed Instruction 

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Using Phenomena in NGSS-Designed Instruction 

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This Achieve resource and video interview with Brian Reiser introduces phenomena and their connection to the NGSS and three-dimensional learning.

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This briefresource about phenomena was developed for educators, and describes how phenomena can be used in NGSS classrooms to drive teaching and learning.

In addition, the three minute video interview below with Brian Reiser introduces phenomena and their connection to the NGSS and three-dimensional learning:
Resource about Engineering Problems External Resources About Phenomena

Qualities of a good anchor phenomenon- a resource from the Research + Practice Collaboratory

www.ngssphenomena.com - a collection of interesting phenomena that could be instructionally productive

Video discussing phenomena in the context of evaluating instructional materials. From Achieve and the Teaching Channel.

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This briefresource about phenomena was developed for educators, and describes how phenomena can be used in NGSS classrooms to drive teaching and learning.

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changing teacher practice

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Thomas R. Guskey

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Guskey, T. R.

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Video example of a driving question board

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Video example of a driving question board

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What is the Driving Question Board in IQWST?

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Can I create driving questions even though my school gave me the unit?

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Can I create driving questions even though my school gave me the unit?

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... and how do I create them?

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How to Write Effective Driving Questions for Project-Based Learning

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Good driving questions are written to help guide the teacher and the student.

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https://teachscience4all.org/2014/11/05/engineering-design-talk-moves/

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District Example of connecting NGSS to Danielson's Model

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District Example of connecting NGSS to Danielson's Model

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Resources for English Learners (Science and Math)

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Resources for English Learners (Science and Math)

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Teacher reflection questions and strategies when working with ELL students

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Here are downloadable documents to support your learning and help strengthen your practice.

Teacher Guides-the full books

Some of the terminology has shifted a bit, but the concepts are the same and are explained in more detail in these two guides.

WIDA Focus on STEM Overview, tool cards, and resources in one document

Science Resources for Meaning-making Activities
Math Resources for Meaning-making Activities
Discourse Moves in English and Spanish

Student Moves, K-2, English

Student Moves, K-2, Spanish

Student Moves, Grades 3-4, English

Student Moves, Grades 3-4, Spanish

Teacher Moves and Student Moves, Grades 5-12, English

Teacher Moves and Student Moves, Grades 5-12, Spanish

Strengthening Equitable Discourse Skills for Students and Teachers
Tips on Effective Group Work with ELs References used in this Website Suggestions for Additional Reading
Contact Us

Principal Investigator
H. Gary Cook, hcook@wisc.edu

Discourse-centered pedagogy with ELs
Rita MacDonald, rkmacdonald@wisc.edu

Science practices, science education
Emily Miller, emilycatherine329@gmail.com

Math practices, math education
Sarah Lord, mtslord@gmail.com

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Here are downloadable documents to support your learning and help strengthen your practice. Some of the terminology has shifted a bit, but the concepts are the same and are explained in more detail in these two guides.

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Wayne RESA

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Wayne RESA

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On Tuesday November 10, 2015 the Michigan Board of Education voted to adopt the Michigan Science Standards by a vote of seven to one. Michigan, one of the original lead states, is the 17th state to have adopted the Performance Expectations from the Next Generation Science Standards. The Michigan Science Standards are the performance expectations from the Next Generation Science Standards.

Download a copy of the approved Michigan Science Standards.

IMPLEMENTING THE MICHIGAN SCIENCE STANDARDS

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Resources
What is all this NGSS stuff anyway? If you are new to NGSS, or like many of us, still trying to wrap your head around all the changes, you may find this padlet useful. It contains a great number of resources organized by these categories:

How is NGSS different?
What is Phenomenon?
What are Driving Questions?
What are Academic Conversations? (argumentation)
What is modeling?
How can administrators support teachers?
Free K-12 NGSS Aligned Curriculum
Are you looking for Free K-12 NGSS aligned curriculum? This padlet has links to curricular materials and other resources. Please do not assume that all these materials are 3 dimensional. Please use the 3 rubrics included in this padlet to evaluate these resources.

Do you need help in designing your science curriculum, to meet the changes in the Michigan Science Standards? If so, you may want to use the new Curriculum Coherence Document, developed at Wayne RESA. The purpose of the document is to help you save time as you navigate through the curriculum process. Download Curriculum Coherence Documen t.

The documents below will support your science curriculum team as you plan your transition to our new standards:

For support with assessment, go to the NGSS Assessment Page.

Michigan Science Standards are the Performance Expectations

The complete Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are available for downoad. The National Science Teachers Association provides resources to support the Next Generation Science Standards. View resources.

The best way to understand our new standards is to read the book, "A Framework for K-12 Science Education". To download a free copy of the K-12 Framework.

How to Read the Standards

Understand the Standards Before You Commit

MDE is actually encouraging everyone to slow down and understand the MI Science Standards before writing assessments and making course sequence changes, etc. Below is an example of what your transition plan might look like.

Stages not marked by years because they build on each other. For more information please see the NGSS Transition Plan.

I would encourage everyone to really understand NGSS K-12 before you purchase new materials, create assessments, write lessons, etc. For example, at the MS and HS level, Performance Expectations (PE's) can be arranged in many different ways. The way you arrange them may not be the same way that others have arranged them. Thus, resources such as textbooks, kit-based science programs, units and lessons may not align to your organization of the PE's. That means that you will have to either change your organization of the PE's at a later date or create everything yourself.

For example, this is a Sample NGSX Chemistry Course - This is only one possibility of what an NGSX aligned science course might look like. In fact, you may not even want to call it chemistry. Please use this as a spring board for discussion and creativity. Notice that the collection of PE's may not align to a particular textbook or other resource. If you commit yourself at this point, it may be difficult for you to find assessments and resource materials that align with the course you have created. Another way to go about this is to spend more time making sure every teacher understands the shifts and vision of NGSS and then try to pilot materials (lessons, units, kit-based science programs, etc.) that align to NGSS.

I would really encourage your team to thoroughly understand NGSS before any drastic changes are made. From my own experience, understanding all these changes is quite a shift. You may want all your team to go through some of the professional learning that we provide at RESA such as NGSX (Please see information below regarding NGSX).

NGSX @Wayne RESA: Next Generation Science Exemplar

Professional Learning Opportunity, Nationally Developed, Locally Implemented

Have you signed up for one of our NGSX cohorts? To understand how this professional learning will support your implementation of the new science standards watch this video.

Learn more about the storyline tools along with some sample storylines and associated lesson plans.

Is there a process that will help me unpack the new Michigan Science Standards?

You may want to first unpack the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI's).

Access the disciplinary core ideas in your grade-level or course and click on "Search the Standards".

Select "Standards By Topic" (this is how Michigan is organizing the standards).

Scroll down and select your grade span. Next, click on the science topics you are interested in and you will see all your performance expectations (PE's) listed.

Each PE is composed of all 3 dimensions. The dimensions associated with the PE are displayed in boxes below the PE. The orange box in the middle is the Disciplinary Core Idea. When you click on this DCI it will take you to the explanation of this target found in the book A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. This explanation is what the DCI is based on. View an Example of Unpacking Performance Expectations

Please also take into consideration the Science and Engineering Practices and the Crosscutting Concepts. To get a complete picture of the Science and Engineering Practices please read the book A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. You may also want to read the appendices. Please see the information below that describes how to access the appendices.

In August 2014 the state modified the wording of the science requirement for graduation. What used to say :

"1 credit in biology, 1 credit in chemistry OR physics, and 1 additional science class"

now reads:

"at least 3 credits in science that are aligned with the subject area content expectations developed by the department (State Department of Education) and approved by the state board under this section".

The interpretation is that students who graduate should master ALL of the state science standards, which are now the Michigan Science Standards (MSS) and are the Performance Expectations (PE's) from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

For a more detailed explanation, please see MDE's document, Michigan Merit Curriculum High School Graduation Requirements

How does CTE fit in?

The document states that, for science, there is some flexibility with these 3 credits. From the document:

SCIENCE GRADUATION REQUIRMENT - 3 Credits

* Proficiency in State Content Standards for Science (3 credits); or

* Beginning with the Class of 2015: Proficiency in some State Content Standards for Science (2 credits) and completion of a Department approved formal Career and Technical Education (CTE) program (1 credit).

Thus, a student may fulfill the requirement for the 3rd Science credit by completing a formal CTE program or curriculum.

If the 3rd Science credit is exchanged for a formal CTE program or curriculum then science content does not need to be integrated. However, districts are responsible for ensuring that students have an opportunity to learn the content as outlined in the Michigan Science Standards since these will be tested on the 11th grade Michigan Merit Exam.

Important, if the CTE course is not completed successfully then the student is not only out the CTE credits, but they will still be short a 3rd credit of science.

How do I find the Performance Expectations that I'm required to teach?

To search for your performance expectations in your grade-level or course visit NGSS website. Then follow the procedure described in the update above, "Aligning Curriculum for Next Year".

We have some districts that are already looking into this. For example, the course sequence below distributes Earth Science Performance Expectations throughout several courses:

Physics (Astronomy)
Chemistry Earth Systems (Geology, Weather and Climate)
Biology Earth Systems (Environmental, History of Earth)
Optional Advanced Science Courses (AP, IB, H, Dual Enrollment)

Concern:

If chemistry and biology teachers are expected to incorporate Earth and Space Science into their courses, these teachers will need to be well versed in the treatment of those topics to provide the depth necessary for meeting the high school expectations.

Problem:

I am not aware of many resources available that are aligned to NGSS to support this Course Pathway. That being said, I am checking around to see what might be out there. For now, you might want to check out the resource below:

MSUs Interactions

Explore other course sequencing options at Model Course Mapping in Middle and High School for the Next Generation Science Standards.

Sample NGSX Chemistry Course - This is only one possibility of what an NGSX aligned science course might look like. Please use this as a spring board for discussion and creativity.

A Framework for K-12 Science Education

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education" is available online for free. It describes the major practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas that all students should be familiar with by the end of high school, and it provides an outline of how these practices, concepts, and ideas should be developed across the grade levels. The Framework is grounded in the most current research on science and science learning and was the first critical step in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education," in a process managed by Achieve, 26 states lead the development of the Next Generation Science Standards.

Download the K-12 Framework.

The Michigan Science Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards Require Tools for Ambitious Science Teaching

View the Ambitious Science Teaching Website. Great teaching can be learned. This website provides tools and resources that support ambitious science instruction at the middle school and high school levels. Ambitious teaching deliberately aims to get students of all racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds to understand science ideas, participate in the discourses of the discipline, and solve authentic problems. They describe 4 core instructional strategies that support this kind of teaching. These "high-leverage" practices make up the Science Learning Framework, and have been selected based on extensive research of how young people learn science, on authentic forms of science activity, and how teachers learn to appropriate new practices. MIExcel (MDE's efforts to define the blueprint for district turnaround) recommends the vision of ambitious science.

FREE Posters on the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

Thanks to the Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD Mathematics and Science Center, we have FREE downloadable posters for elementary students/teachers and middle school and high school students/teachers, that they developed.

View the poster showing the E lementary Science and Engineering Principles.

View the poster showing the Middle School and High School Science and Engineering Practices.

Thanks again to the EUP Mathematics and Science Center for sharing their work with us.

You can download the free Next Generation Science Standards App. Download the iPad App. Download the iPhone App.

Follow the conversation on the Next Generation Science Standards on Twitter. Just use #NGSS.

Achieve and the Teaching Channel Releases New Classroom Videos Demonstrating Transitions to NGSS

The featured classroom examples illustrate how some educators are transitioning instruction to help students meet the goals of the NGSS. The snapshots demonstrate how specific teachers are beginning to transition to the standards and offer guidance to educators currently considering how to best engage students in three-dimensional learning.

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On Tuesday November 10, 2015 the Michigan Board of Education voted to adopt the Michigan Science Standards by a vote of seven to one. Michigan, one of the original lead states, is the 17th state to have adopted the Performance Expectations from the Next Generation Science Standards.

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Rich's blog

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NGSS and Danielson: 2 Frameworks = 1 Vision for Learning

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For many of the teachers with whom I work, the shift away from content-focused science standards to 3-Dimensional performance expectations r...

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Supporting Growth in Science Classrooms by Linking it to Evaluation Models

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Supporting Growth in Science Classrooms by Linking it to Evaluation Models

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Kent ISD

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Supporting Growth in Science Classrooms by Linking it to Evaluation Models

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This is a rough look at different evaluation models and how NGSS might fit in

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Teacher Evaluation Comparison for Science

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Evaluating your phenomenon using the EQuIP rubric

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Evaluating your phenomenon using the EQuIP rubric

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This site contains a searchable database

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Access Google Sites with a personal Google account or Google Workspace account (for business use).

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Biology examples

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This website contains a loose arrangement of video phenomena

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This site is a curated collection of science phenomena for the NGSS, along with phenomenon based learning resources and help for how to use phenomenon to drive student questions in the classroom centered around 3 dimensional teaching and learning.

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Article that describes the use of phenomena 

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Article that describes the use of phenomena 

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The Workbook generalizes the issues and challenges associated with implementation and outlines some key questions, timelines, decisions, and considerations for leaders.

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This chart can be used in conjunction with a phenomenon to support students asking questions, mapping their learning, etc.

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Contains short description of indicator

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Created from Ambitious Science Teaching targets

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Doing and talking math and science resources for English Learners

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Doing and talking math and science resources for English Learners

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Here are downloadable documents to support your learning and help strengthen your practice.

Teacher Guides-the full books

Some of the terminology has shifted a bit, but the concepts are the same and are explained in more detail in these two guides.

WIDA Focus on STEM Overview, tool cards, and resources in one document

Science Resources for Meaning-making Activities
Math Resources for Meaning-making Activities
Discourse Moves in English and Spanish

Student Moves, K-2, English

Student Moves, K-2, Spanish

Student Moves, Grades 3-4, English

Student Moves, Grades 3-4, Spanish

Teacher Moves and Student Moves, Grades 5-12, English

Teacher Moves and Student Moves, Grades 5-12, Spanish

Strengthening Equitable Discourse Skills for Students and Teachers
Tips on Effective Group Work with ELs References used in this Website Suggestions for Additional Reading
Contact Us

Principal Investigator
H. Gary Cook, hcook@wisc.edu

Discourse-centered pedagogy with ELs
Rita MacDonald, rkmacdonald@wisc.edu

Science practices, science education
Emily Miller, emilycatherine329@gmail.com

Math practices, math education
Sarah Lord, mtslord@gmail.com

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Here are downloadable documents to support your learning and help strengthen your practice. Some of the terminology has shifted a bit, but the concepts are the same and are explained in more detail in these two guides.

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Laura Chambless

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Minna Turrell

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Minna Turrell

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How do I know if I'm really implementing these new practices?

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How do I know if I'm really implementing these new practices?

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Making video recordings of yourself can help.

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This toolkit provides practical guidance for education practitioners on using video observations to help teachers accelerate their development. Inside you will find four sections to help you start video observations in your school community. Each section includes a discussion of important lessons from the Best Foot Forward project, a study of digital video in classroom observations, and adaptable tools for implementation.

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Best Foot Forward: Video Observation Toolkit

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This toolkit provides practical guidance for education practitioners on using video observations to help teachers accelerate their development. Inside you will find four sections to help you start video observations in your school community. Each section includes a discussion of important lessons from the Best Foot Forward project, a study of digital video in classroom observations, and adaptable tools for implementation.

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Video: How do I get students to revise their models/explanations?

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Video: How do I get students to revise their models/explanations?

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels. The content of the presentations adds to what you'll find in written documents and other videos on this site. And again, we thank all our teacher partners for furnishing these examples for the AST community.

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Presentations on Anchoring events and Modeling | AST

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels.

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Students should be engaging in the same thought dispositions and behaviors as practicing scientists and engineers.

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Students should be engaging in the same thought dispositions and behaviors as practicing scientists and engineers.

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Which practices are evident in this video?

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Video, How can students create and revise models over time?

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Video, How can students create and revise models over time?

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Please pay special attention starting 7 minutes into the video

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels. The content of the presentations adds to what you'll find in written documents and other videos on this site. And again, we thank all our teacher partners for furnishing these examples for the AST community.

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Presentations on Anchoring events and Modeling | AST

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels.

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels. The content of the presentations adds to what you'll find in written documents and other videos on this site. And again, we thank all our teacher partners for furnishing these examples for the AST community.

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Presentations on Anchoring events and Modeling | AST

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels.

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels. The content of the presentations adds to what you'll find in written documents and other videos on this site. And again, we thank all our teacher partners for furnishing these examples for the AST community.

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Presentations on Anchoring events and Modeling | AST

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels.

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Video Presentation on (phenomenon) Anchoring Events

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Video Presentation on (phenomenon) Anchoring Events

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels. The content of the presentations adds to what you'll find in written documents and other videos on this site. And again, we thank all our teacher partners for furnishing these examples for the AST community.

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Presentations on Anchoring events and Modeling | AST

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These are presentations in which the ideas of anchoring events and modeling are featured. We've broken the presentations down into more view-able segments. In each, there are up-to-date examples of both anchoring events-from kindergarten to AP chemistry-and modeling from all grade levels.

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With NGSS, do I put learning targets on the board?

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With NGSS, do I put learning targets on the board?

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"I can" statements

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Practice Brief 46 -- Topics: Implementation Instruction

How to define meaningful daily learning objectives for science investigations

Teachers should have the authority to design instruction by involving students in developing daily objectives.

District Staff & PD Providers should help teachers learn how to define and sequence 3D learning performances across the units they teach that culminate in students understanding performance expectation bundles.

School Leaders should learn how to see and support science instruction that engages students in making sense of phenomena and should consider how daily learning objectives might be different in a 3D instruction classroom.

What Is The Issue?

Many schools require teachers to post the day's learning target, objective, or standard on the board. However, displaying the target concept to be learned-the disciplinary core idea that is the focus of instruction-"gives away" what students should actually be figuring out as they make sense of phenomena by engaging in the science and engineering practices. Many teachers face a dilemma when they try to meet their administrator's requirements. It is important for teachers and administrators to come to consensus around developing and using objectives that are consistent with 3D learning.

Authors:

WILLIAM R. PENUEL, MICHAEL NOVAK, TARA MCGILL, KATIE VAN HORNE & BRIAN J. REISER | MARCH 2017

Reflection Questions

Teachers: What shifts might be needed in your teaching for you to develop learning objectives focused on student questions?

Building Administrators: How can you support student-driven learning goals and investigation while learning about classroom learning objectives?

District Leaders: How do your district's frameworks for observing teachers support or interfere with 3D science teaching and learning?

Things to Consider

Conceptual understanding takes time and effort. It takes multiple lessons for students to understand an educational standard-i.e., a 3D performance expectation (PE) from the NRC Framework. Students should not be expected to master a PE in a single lesson. A lesson-level 3D learning performance is a more appropriate focus.

Don't short-circuit deep learning. PEs describe the science concepts students are learning, so posting it "gives away" the thing to be explained, possibly reducing student motivation to learn and their ability to explain with any depth what and how they know. Students should be able to say what they are trying to figure out in their own words-and come to use formal science terminology once they have gotten a feeling for it after multiple investigations.

Investigations should help students construct understanding. The NRC Framework vision is about students seeing that science and engineering practices are ways that can help them make sense of and change the world. Students should be deciding together what they need to investigate each day, based on what they've already figured out and what they need to learn to explain or design. They shouldn't know the outcome of an investigation ahead of time.

All three dimensions of any PE are in service of answering questions (in science) or designing solutions (in engineering) related to natural phenomena, so students' should generate questions to investigate or define problems to solve as part of any learning objective.

Attending to Equity

Schools that have been historically underresourced or that serve populations facing the most barriers to equitable education may face more pressure and direct supervision/evaluation of teaching practices. It is crucial to provide all students with meaningful instruction and maintain high educational goals.

All students should be able to understand why they are doing what they are doing in class. Students should help define learning objectives-where the class is headed as part of an unfolding investigation. You can build an objective for the next day by eliciting student responses about what they figured out and what they need to figure out next at the end of class. Aim to include many student voices in this process, rather than letting the most vocal students consistently set the agenda.

Recommended Actions You Can Take

Invite your administrator to visit at a time when students are developing a consensus model of a phenomenon through classroom discussion. They'll see students engaging in evidence-based argumentation and sophisticated understandings being articulated.

Co-construct the daily objective with students at the beginning of class to post on the board, as an answer to the question: What do we need to figure out today to help us answer our driving question/solve our design challenge? It should ideally be a question (e.g., "Today we are trying to figure out: Why don't antibiotics work like they used to?"), but it could also be a piece of a model needed to explain a phenomenon or a step needed to develop a engineering solution.

Prepare a one-pager to hand to a visiting administrator or colleague. It could be: (a) a short explanation/model from your unit storyline showing how an explanation of the phenomenon will help students master the PEs, (b) the culminating product that students will produce in the unit, (c) research supporting an equitable 3D instruction approach, or (d) a 3D learning performance for the lesson.

ALSO SEE STEM TEACHING TOOLS

STEM Teaching Tools content copyright 2014-19 UW Institute for Science + Math Education. All rights reserved.
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Research + Practice Collaboratory (Award #1238253). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Others may adapt with attribution. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

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How to define meaningful daily learning objectives for science investigations :StemTeachingTools

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Practice Brief 46 -- Topics: Implementation Instruction Teachers should have the authority to design instruction by involving students in developing daily objectives. District Staff & PD Providers should help teachers learn how to define and sequence 3D learning performances across the units they teach that culminate in students understanding performance expectation bundles.

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How do I know if my selected phenomenon is a good one?

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How do I know if my selected phenomenon is a good one?

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Check out these guidelines

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What makes a good phenomenon?

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Developing Classroom Norms Collaboratively with Your Students

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Developing Classroom Norms Collaboratively with Your Students

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Video is available. The link is on the right-hand side of the webpage

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Once a teacher has developed a philosophy for classroom management, has created a plan for how the classroom should operate, has investigated the make-up of the class, and has secured information about school expectations, then the process of establishing classroom expectations can begin. Expectations communicate specific standards of behavior for the classroom. Expectations generally communicate how students treat each other as opposed to procedures that communicate how students operate in the classroom (Evertson & Emmer, 2009). Expectations describe behaviors that make the classroom a good place to live and learn for all students (Weinstein, 2003). Expectations communicate general standards or expectations with a single rule encompassing a wide range of behaviors. Research has shown that designing and implementing expectations at school, and at home, significantly influence behavior and learning. Expectations clearly communicate that school is a place for learning and will give students a structure to help them feel that school is a safe and a predictable place to learn (Marzano et al., 2005).

Research indicates that expectations should not be forced on students, but developed with students. Student involvement increases the sense of ownership and the likelihood that students make the expectations their own. Teachers might ask themselves the following questions related to developing classroom expectations:

What kinds of expectations do you usually set in the classroom? (For pre-service teachers, this is usually based on experiences in student teaching or on personal experiences as a student). Additionally, effective teachers take the time to explain the reasons for expectations.

What are some reasons for setting expectations?

How might the classroom expectations differ in the elementary classroom and in the secondary classroom?

Should students be involved in developing the expectations? If so, how are students involved?

Setting student expectations is not usually a topic that students see as "fun." Think about interesting and creative ways to include students in the process.

Think of a time when a classroom seemed well-managed. What characteristics were observed?

Creating too many expectations or too few expectations can create a situation where the classroom is about expectations, not learning. How can a teacher create balance?

Posting the expectations is one way to help students remember them. What are other ways of helping students remember them? (Marzano et al., 2005).

As a teacher reflects on expectations for the classroom, four basic principles are offered for consideration (Weinstein & Mignano, 2003).

Principle of Expectations

Questions to Think About

Expectations are reasonable and necessary.

Expectations are clear and understandable.

Expectations are consistent with instructional goals and what is known about how people learn.

Classroom expectations are consistent with school expectations.

What expectations are appropriate for this grade level?
Is there a good reason for this expectation?
Is the expectation too abstract for students to comprehend?
To what extent do I want my students to participate in the decision-making process?
Will this expectation facilitate or hinder my students' learning?
What are the school expectations?
Are particular behaviors required in the halls, during assemblies, in the cafeteria, etc.?

One approach is to have students write a class pledge or a class promise to share expectations for how they treat each other. This strategy helps to create responsibility for the classroom, respect for self and others, and an understanding of the culture of the learner. It is a way to reinforce student responsibility in the classroom and a way to secure student buy-in. A class pledge or promise further increases how students are expected to treat each other and further enhances understanding of the class expectations. An example might include:

Every day, in every way, I will do everything I can to learn the skills I need to be a success in any job that I choose. I will respect others and myself. I will do my best.

Another approach that involves students in developing classroom expectations is to have students write or draw expectations for the classroom. Allow students to brainstorm ideas and accept all ideas that are worded positively or negatively. Transfer the ideas or drawings to chart paper. Older students can complete the process by meeting in groups and combining responses. Work with students to combine their ideas into three to five expectations for how they should be treated and how they should treat each other. Make sure that the expectations are appropriate to the level of the students. Daniel Meier, who describes his experiences as a first grade teacher in Learning in Small Moments: Life in an Urban Classroom, writes about the process of how he and his co-teacher, John Sierra, introduced rules to first graders (Weinstein & Mignano, 2003).

Secure student attention and say "Students, this is your class and I want us to work together to set our own expectations for our classroom so that we can all get along together this year". Ask if students have any ideas for expectations that are necessary for the classroom.

Establishing expectations together is common practice in classrooms where the goal is pro-social behavior and creating a high level of student involvement. Most students will take their cue and eagerly participate in listing a variety of expectations. Record all ideas and suggestions on chart paper, on a transparency, or the smart board. Students suggestions are recorded in their own words:

Don't hit people.

Don't bother people.

Don't tease people.

Be nice.

No stealing.

Don't kick.

No karate.

No kicking.

Stay out of trouble.

Take care of school property.

Help each other.

Don't say bad things about people.

After students' ideas are listed, comment that the rules are very good, but the list is so long that there are too many to remember. Comment that there are some expectations that seem to be the same. Ask students if the ideas could be grouped into fewer headings. Suggest that expectations like hitting, and kicking could hurt people physically. Circle or mark these ideas in blue. Other expectations like teasing and saying things could hurt people's feelings. Mark or circle these ideas in red. Look at the ideas written in positive terms. How should they be circled? Look at the ideas dealing with school property. Could this be a separate category?

Work with the students to crystallize a final list if expectation. The expectations might include:

Respect others.

Respect personal property of others and of the school.

Do your best every day in everything.

Post the expectations and attach the ideas from the students to the appropriate expectations.

Post the expectations and add ideas as necessary to the posted expectations (Weinstein & Mignano, 2003).

Whether the teacher involves students in developing the rules or whether pre-written expectations are presented, a teacher who establishes reasonable expectations, who provides an understandable rationale, and who enforces the expectations consistently will find that students are willing to follow them (Evertson & Emmer, 2009).

After a class has expectations in place, the teachers should treat expectations like any other academic subject by developing a plan for teaching the expectations. This plan could include listing the expectations on the board and transferring students' ideas from the chart to the expectations on the chart. This should include discussions and role playing of how expectations look when students follow them; how expectations sound as students follow them; and how students feel as they demonstrate them. This process requires more than one class period and may take place over the first week of school. When students start to ignore the expectations, teachers should revisit them and re-teach them. As a preventive process, effective classroom managers review the rules weekly, monthly, or by six week periods.

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Developing Classroom Expectations - Project IDEAL

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Setting classroom expectations for both the student and the teacher and how they should treat each other.

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Academic conversations are not possible without Classroom Norms

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Academic conversations are not possible without Classroom Norms

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The  STAR (STrategies And Resources) are toward the back, after the case studies

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Elementary Classroom Videos: Talk Science Resources

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Elementary Classroom Videos: Talk Science Resources

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Includes elementary classroom video examples, "Talk Moves" video resources and more

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The Inquiry Project takes a unique approach to a study of matter for grades 3-5, bringing together core ideas, scientific practices, and crosscutting concepts...

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How do I engage English Language Learners (ELL) in academic conversations

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How do I engage English Language Learners (ELL) in academic conversations

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Tips to mediate student thinking

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

What are academic conversations?

Why is it important to value oral language?

How can you engage students in academic conversations?

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Academic Conversations with ELLs: Series Overview

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Discover how to engage ELLs in academic conversations. Maria Santos and Jeff Zwiers provide an introduction to a video series on academic conversations. Jeff describes the importance of oral language while Maria introduces how OUSD has been focusing on academic conversations.

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What NGSS could look like in the classroom

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Ambitious Science Teaching

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The ambitious teacher is someone who "works with students' ideas" over time. What would you experience in classrooms where ambitious teaching was the focus? You would see and hear:

Teachers anchoring their instruction in complex and puzzling natural events

Students engaging in multiple rounds of creating and revising scientific models, explanations and evidence-based arguments

Teachers using a variety of discourse strategies with students to get them to think deeply and to respond to each other's thinking

Students prompting each other to engage in sense-making talk during investigations and other activities

Students' ideas being represented publicly and worked on by the class

Teachers using specialized tools and routines to support students who are not willing or able to participate without help

Students speaking up about what information or experiences they need to move their thinking forward

Ambitious teaching is supported by four sets of core practices that work together throughout every unit of study. These practices start with designing units of instruction ( Planning for engagement with important science ideas); they then focus on making visible what students currently know about the science being taught ( Eliciting students' ideas); they help the teacher guide sense-making talk around investigations and other kinds of lab activities or readings ( Supporting on-going changes in thinking); and finally they help the teacher scaffold students' efforts to put everything together near the end of a unit ( Pressing for evidence-based explanations).

Throughout this website we use the term "practices" because, as in other professions like medicine, law, engineering, and architecture, there are principled ways of doing the work that can be identified, learned, and continually improved over time.The idea of ambitious teaching is now being used to support the development of a common vision so that teaching and learning can improve. We're not there yet, this is just the beginning of that journey. Below we share more specifics about each practice and provide video examples of each.

There is a lot on this website to explore. We have recommended Pathways for navigating these resources that are a specialized if you are a teacher, a teacher group, a teacher educator, or a PD provider.

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The ambitious teacher is someone who "works with students' ideas" over time. What would you experience in classrooms where ambitious teaching was the focus?