NGSS Why, What, and How

Opening Discussion What do you think about Standards in General? What do you know about the NGSS? What are your concerns about the NGSS? Content? Implementation at OB?

Agenda Standards Why the new standards and what is different about them? Tour of the NGSS Resources to access the NGSS Tools for implementation

History A Nation at Risk 1983- "The education foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people. … We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, p. 5).  1989 Bush Sr. brought nations Governors together and called for a collective effort to upgrade the k-12 Education System in the US. 6 goals were identified to be accomplished by 2000 The results has ultimately been standards across grade levels and content areas Issues: Too much Content Measurement of achievement impossible because all of the too many standards are multi dimensional. A single score cannot simultaneously and accurately measure two different things.

New Standards Continuous progression from K-12, required for students to build a conceptual framework in which to incorporate new information. Focus on the practices of science and engineering and concepts that span over all sciences and even outside of science as opposed to “straight content” Reflect student expectations and not curriculum and aim to include students ability to use content knowledge not just regurgitate it, therefore shifting instructional focus to teaching for understanding and not memorization

Tweak in Philosophy At great Personal Risk… If Social Constructivism and Realism mated and produced a single offspring blending the best traits from both, NGSS would advocate incorporating that way of thinking into your teaching. Cognitive Structures or Schema for how the world works are built by individuals based on their observation and interaction (experimentation) with the Natural World, the actual behavior of which is independent of how we as human being perceive it. These structures and explanations are refined through further experimentation, reflection, and analysis of data as well as social interactions with others, coming to a consensus on what the interpretation of that data is When Students are engaged in this process, they are learning and open to real meaningful modification of their schema. Providing a setting for, guidance during and opportunities for this process is the role of the Science (some might argue, Every) Teacher THIS IS GOING TO REQUIRE DIFFERENT WAYS OF ASSESSMENT, CHANGES TO CURRICULUM AND POSSIBLY EVEN STRUCTURES WITH IN THE SCHOOL DAY Starting from the “ground up” with teachers- Be a part of the change.

Best Resources for Accessing the NGSS NSTA website and app “The Framework” itself is a little tough to use… Handout Youtube has great stuff Share any good ones you have?

Tools for the Classroom and what does it look like. Whiteboarding- Homework, prelab, postlab Using labs to Introduce a topic Very little instructions Allow students to discover/discuss the need to take certain data Iterative labs or lab components that students will get better at over time Lots of classroom discussion and presentation, exchange of ideas between students, let them correct eachother CER’s Claim, Evidence Reasoning for argumentation or assessment Simply producing the right answer isn’t enough, just adding a why or a “E and R Line after a MC question Less Content on assessments and covered during the year A change in curriculum based on what teachers deem required.