I started teaching in a small, private school in Portland, OR for low income families. The science curriculum and standards were one page and basically facts for students to memorize. I love how NGSS has changed things. It definitely took some adjustment, but it is more about lifelong skills for students, which is much higher on the DOK scale than basic memorization.

Students have definitely changed in my 15 years of education and I feel the effects of COVID are still present in classrooms.

At times, I have felt frustrated as a teacher with the focus on math and reading, as science can help with both of those and authentically.

I love the 5E model of lesson planning because the first thing is knowing your students and engaging them in the problem/story/question.

Often times, it is overwhelming to think about a small increase in ocean and sea levels will displaced millions of people, especially in low lying countries like Bangledesh, and will create a human crisis. Those people will need to make a new home somewhere, and this is where us vs. them mentality becomes very dangerous. Brexit has showed that ethnic groups are starting to have more xenophobia mindsets, which horrifies me to think of the consequences.

Jennifer R.

I am interested in learning more about Climate Change. This will guide my teaching and prepare my students and myself to make better choices and do what we can to help.

I am not very familiar with this but I think it is important to protect and respect our rights.

At the middle school level, there is a broad level of knowledge students are expected to know and depending on the curriculum or how your district divides up the NGSS, it could be very hands on (such as with chemistry or Newton's Laws) or more theoretical in nature. However, students need it to be interactive and in my experience, this comes through being project based.

This is a challenge where I teach because many curriculum focus on worse-case scenarios and quite a few of my students are reluctant to believe climate change exists to begin with. Using fear-based education doesn't usually change their minds. They need to see practical reasons why it is important to them.

I'm not really sure what is meant by this. I'm guessing it has to do with how climate or environmental issues impact specific populations more than others?