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1. What is one positive aspect you took away from another team’s PLC sharing that you would  like to affirm or highlight? (E.g. anything that stood out, inspired you, or gave you new ideas?)

2. One question or suggestion, you would like to offer to the presenting team? (This is just to help each other grow—feel free to share constructively.)

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How can we assess students’ communication skills effectively?

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What are the key components of strong science communication? (e.g., clarity, structure, engagement, accuracy)

https://activatelearning.com/science-communication-skills-for-middle-and-high-school-students

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Integrating certain elements of the EEES framework into middle and high school science learning, with investigative research projects and equitable discussion strategies , forms a robust and comprehensive approach to developing science communication skills.
Investigation-Centered Science
Investigative research projects are a powerful tool for developing science communication skills and fostering a strong science identity in younger students. These projects involve students actively engaging in the scientific process by formulating research questions, designing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and communicating their findings to various audiences. Activate Learning's K-12 curricula, which is fully aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards ( ) and incorporates 3-dimensional learning , offers a comprehensive approach to integrating investigative science projects into middle and high school classrooms.

Our investigative research projects offer numerous benefits for students' science communication skills and science identity:

Authentic experience: By engaging in real-world research, students gain a deeper understanding of the scientific process and develop practical skills that prepare them for future careers in science.

Improved communication skills: Through presenting their findings to diverse audiences, students learn to adapt their communication style, use appropriate language, listen thoughtfully to feedback, and engage in meaningful dialogue about their research.

Enhanced science identity: Participating in investigative research projects helps students see themselves as capable scientists, contributing to a stronger sense of belonging within the scientific community.

Increased confidence: As students successfully navigate the challenges of research projects, they build confidence in their scientific abilities and capacity to communicate complex ideas effectively.

Greater engagement and motivation: Investigative research projects allow students to explore their passions and interests, leading to increased engagement and motivation in science learning.

Three-dimensional, investigative research projects naturally align with the EEES framework, addressing the key components of "who," "why," "what," and "how." Both approaches emphasize the importance of engaging students in authentic scientific practices, developing their ability to communicate scientific ideas effectively, and giving students a baseline skillset for real-world science communication.
Fostering Equitable Discussions
In our blog post " Empowering Student Voices: The Power of Equitable Discussions in Science Education with OpenSciEd ", we highlight how our OpenSciEd middle school curriculum prioritizes authentic, student-driven inquiry and equitable discussions, creating a learning environment where all students feel valued, heard, and supported. As students begin to explain science and their research to family members and the broader community, the ability to foster equitable discussions becomes key.

Communication tools like the Driving Question Board (DBQ), used in our curricula, further support the development of students' science communication skills and equitable discourse with their peers. The DQB is a large poster board prominently displaying the driving question for exploring phenomena in each curriculum unit The DQB acts as a visual reference point, featuring the driving question at its center, surrounded by sub-questions representing curriculum units' main learning goals . Most importantly, the DQB is a collaborative creation, jointly constructed by both students and the teacher at the start of the unit, and it evolves throughout the learning process.

This aligns with the "how" element of the EEES framework, which emphasizes the importance of dialogue, engagement, and the use of appropriate language and platforms in science communication. Fostering equitable discussions empowers students to see themselves as capable and valued members of the scientific community. This feeling of empowerment and strong identity not only boosts their confidence but it builds empathy and listening skills.

A great example of this can be found in our Colonial School District , which outlines the significant improvement in students' social-emotional learning after the pandemic with OpenSciEd.

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Science Communication Skills for Middle and High School Students

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This blog post explores the urgent need to equip students with science communication skills and introduces the Essential Elements for Effective Science Communication (EEES) framework as a guide for educators.

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LSS

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Monitoring & debugging (Padlet)

-Students are engaged in the process of giving feedback.

Managing information (SLS)

-Students take ownership of their own learning by finding out information online themselves.

-They will assess their own learning by checking if they are able to answer the questions they asked at the start of the lesson.

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Physics

1) They were more cognisant of their learning, they need to list down their learning.

2) They were empowered to comment on their friend's answers.

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LSS

Taps on intrinsic motivation and curiosity and students will naturally want to engage in their own chromatogram and why it looks different from their peers. This could possibly equip them to peer assess to build thinking process.

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1. managing information

(SLS)

Students justifies the properties of covalent compounds based on prior knowledge on ionic compounds.

E.g. Given that covalent compounds have low mp/bp, they have to justify and draw connection of structures and bonding explanation for ionic to covalent.

Students need to consider the differences between the two types of compounds and how structure and bonding influence the properties.

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1. monitoring & debugging

(Padlet)

Students come up with questions that can be used to test their understanding after they have learned the content.

They are to answer the questions and give peer feedback to improve the answers.

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Bio:

making thinking visible!

Students have to digest the info on the spot + organise the info + make it their own!

take ownership over their own learning.

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Physics:

1) Planning was rather macro, we were focused on topic selection based on SOW and our past teaching experience.

2) Monitoring was manageable because of the resources were both hard (scaffold) KWL and soft copy (the extension of learning) ITT.

3) Use of ITT allows a quick glance of students' thinking and understanding of the topic.

AFG

1) We will need to further develop our students to do reflecting thinking and provide proactive and concrete comments.

2) We did not further evaluate their learning beyond the ITT. Although the topic was included in the WA2.

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BIO:

Metacognitive strategy: managing information (roundhouse) + debugging (peer-assessment after roundhouse)

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Teachers' conviction: difficult to explain the importance of it

Difficulty in engaging students with lower readiness (e.g. G2): lack of content knowledge in different disciplines, unable to see the connection between concepts as effectively, simply do not care.

It is much easier to incorporate and communicate DI to students with higher readiness

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challenge: if their understanding of a particular concept is not strong and we try to link it back to that concept, we may end up having to digress from lesson to re-explain / reteach the other concept

students may confuse the concepts across the different sciences or mix up the key words (yellowish brown vs reddish brown)

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e.g Diffusion / KPT / Energy --> when common words appear across different sciences we can use that to trigger / activate prior knowledge from the other sciences to help see the bigger picture

polymer --> Chemistry + Biology (polysaccharide)

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Some common topics in Phy/Chem include KPT, and radioactivity, generally energy.

SLS already has integrated packages for both chem/phy in KPT. However, lies the challenge of ensuring they are assessment ready, in terms of answering both chem/phy which might have different requirements.

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When teaching students chemical equations writing, the Law of Conservation of Mass is being brought in in order to let students see that the number of atoms is the same before and after the reaction. In doing so, some connection is being drawn to the Principle of Conservation of Energy whereby energy is not created nor destroyed but rather converted from one form to another.

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Naturally in lower sec science we use it as trigger, where teacher use a recall to intro the subject.

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For the topic of on energy in Physics , Energy conservations, we would also sometimes link with Chemistry's idea Disciplinary of Kinetic Particle Theory, and Forces between the bonds.

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DI on Systems (Bio):

Draw connections between what students are learning (photosynthesis) and previous chapters that they have learned (respiration). Emphasise on how different systems interact.

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Biology:

1. Structure & Function: intentional incorporation across different topics

2. Systems: linking different topics together, e.g respiration and photosynthesis (Product of photosynthesis used for respiration)

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DI on energy -->

Bio: energy passed on from one organism to another, that energy is never created nor destroyed, that it is converted from one form to another. That the energy is stored in chemical bonds of molecules when it is passed from one organism to another, and also lost in the form of heat.

Kinetic particle theory --> movement of particles and how these are affected by energy (temperature) etc (e.g enzymes)

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CHEMISTRY

Leveraging on CER framework, acquiring W4 and W7 - USING AND DEVELOPING MODELS, W8-Constructing explanations

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BIOLOGY

Intentional questioning to guide students thinking

Eg. What is the command word? What topic is this from? What are some key words? What is the key concept?

Being ready to ride on student's thinking processes / misconception - getting to know why students think in a particular way (affirming & clarifying)

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CHEMISTRY

Observable traits in students e.g.

to be able to make sense of the rationale behind a certain investigation

be able to apply what they have learnt in a certain topic to subsequent topics and demonstrate some transferable skills

Allow students to find out information on their own and to be able to identify and pick up certain skills essential for the learning of Chemistry

To be able to think like a scientist and realise that everything is interconnected

To be able to communicate their findings or theory to a small audience group confidently and that would be a good scientific communication skill set to have.

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BIOLOGY

1. Students being able to identify the missing points in their answers and not copy corrections wholesale. (Ability to self assess their answers)

2. Being able to reflect on the work and see how to move forward. Sees the value in own reflection

3. Being able to identify question demands through command words

4. Transfer and apply content knowledge accordingly for novel situations / questions

5. Students ask relevant questions when exposed to novel contexts

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Physics - Possibly include in Unit notes the use of CER framework and reminders by teachers.

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Physics - Continue using CER Framework - Analysing and Interpreting Data, Linking the connections between graphical data to theory knowledge. What the gradient, y-intercepts ?

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Chemistry Unit

Would be okay to ask questions eg. on why are noble gases inert which would be questions that students may ask intentionally. Subsequently direct them to the realisation of the reasons behind the inert nature.

Breaking down mode for the students to craft out their answers and provide waiting time for them to slowly formulate their responses.

Another example would be KPT which involves data-based questions and students are expected to interpret data for KPT which aligns to W4 interpreting and analysing data

For Chemical Calculations, it also involves the students to analyse data and come up with solutions, given some information. Getting the students to do some decision-making based on their already acquired knowledge.

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Physics - Ability to tackle novel, unique, out of textbook questions, to go through the process instead of just getting the correct answers.

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BIOLOGY

1. Focus on specific WOTD to not dilute efforts

1. CER framework (visibility) --> aligns with W4 & W8

2. Setting routines:

Claim --> description

Evidence --> data

Reason --> Explain

2. Deliberately emphasising paying attention to command words.

3. Going through good and not so good answers visibly as a routine for students to reflect on --> MC + allows students to practice self/peer assess