ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS& NGSS By Dr. Hilarie B. Davis, Dr. Bradford T. Davey,

Objectives for our time together 1) Understand what makes a question “essential” 2) Understand the role essential questions can play in Next Gen teaching and learning 3) Focus on using, finding, and developing essential questions

Identify the essential questions Reflect: What makes a question essential? Do you use essential questions? How do you use them? If you don’t use them, why are you interested in using them?

Essential Questions Provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understandings culminating in meaningful performances Require students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify answers Do not yield a single straightforward answer, but produce different reasonable responses, about which thoughtful and knowledgeable people may disagree. Spark meaningful connections with prior learnings and personal experiences and create opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects – relevant! Can be either overarching or topical in scope, cutting across units/courses, causing genuine, relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content, or focusing on a specific topic Boulder Valley School District

NGSS Three Dimensional Learning

The Goal of NGSS If implemented properly, the NGSS will lead to coherent, rigorous instruction that will result in students being able to acquire and apply scientific knowledge to unique situations and to think and reason scientifically What is intrinsically motivating to students to participate in this learning process?

How can essential questions engage students in the 3D learning process?

Gravity - Lesson Analysis Performance Expectations Meaningful scenario, phenomena, problems Builds on student’s prior knowledge Scientifically accurate grade appropriate information Student use of practices Differentiated instruction

Reviewing for Performance Expectations Lesson Link - a.gov/files/lesson3 _moons_rings_rela te.pdf a.gov/files/lesson3 _moons_rings_rela te.pdf Wavelength Link - gth.org/list/849 gth.org/list/849

NGSS and Inquiry Inquiry in many classrooms Isolating which factor causes an effect Finding relationship between variables Testing hypotheses Reporting findings Goal of practice in NGSS Explaining mechanism – building a “how and why story” Incrementally building an explanatory model Key role for disclosure – argumentation, building consensus

Reviewing for Performance Expectations Meaningful scenario, phenomena, problems Builds on student’s prior knowledge

Reviewing for Performance Expectations Scientifically accurate grade appropriate information Student use of practices

Reviewing for Performance Expectations Differentiated instruction

How does a question become essential? Is taken up a notch with why, what if, under what conditions, what do you suppose… Answers simpler questions and then asks why, how or if that is the only answer Sounds like a question a child would ask, simple but profound Asks about the relationships, context, or value of ideas Has layers of ideas underpinning the main idea so students are able to peel the onion and discover the layers of meaning around a core idea Has the “duh” factor – the question seems simple at first, but when thinking about the reasons for the answer, it gets complex quickly

Essential Questions in NGSS

Locating Essential Questions in NGSS

Essential Questions (from Storylines) Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems How do organisms obtain and use matter and energy? How do matter and energy move through an ecosystem? Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics How does a system of living and non-living things operate to meet the needs of the organisms in an ecosystem? How and why do organisms interact with their environment, and what are the effects of these interactions?

Essential Questions and Performance Expectations

Kindergarten-PS2 Motion & Stability: Forces & Interactions Essential Question: What happens if you push or pull an object harder? Performance Expectation-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object PE-2: Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull

Middle School S-PS-2 Motion & Stability: Forces & Interactions Essential Question: How can one describe physical interactions between objects and within systems of objects? PE-1: Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects PE-2: Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object PE-3: Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electrical and magnetic forces

High School-PS-2 Motion & Stability: Forces & Interactions Essential Question: How can one explain and predict interactions between objects and within systems of objects? PE-1: Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s Second Law of Motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its Acceleration PE-2: Use mathematical representations to support the claim that the total momentum of a system of objects is conserved when there is no net force on the system PE-3: Apply science and engineering ideas to design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the force on a macroscopic object during a collision

Essential Questions and Learning Progressions

Learning progressions and essential questions

Increasingly sophisticated questions Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions K- What happens if you push or pull an object harder? 3- How do equal and unequal forces on an object affect the object? How can magnets be used?” MS - How can one describe physical interactions between objects and within systems of objects? HS - How can one explain and predict interactions between objects and within systems of objects?

Reiser, 2013 Essential Questions Are the Reason to Learn

Using Essential Questions in Instruction Post the essential question in a large font in the classroom, on handouts, on assignments so it is the advance organizer, the focus, and the reason to learn Ask students to answer the question as best they can in the beginning, and list sub-questions that need to be addressed Use the essential question for reflection after every activity: Add something about how you are thinking about the question based on what you just did Look back at the questions you have about the ideas in the essential question to see how you can answer them You may want to add to your list of questions

Using Essential Questions in Assessment Use those initial responses as a baseline, a needs assessment, a pre-assessment After learning experiences, ask students to reflect on their questions, answers and notes about the essential question and add to them to involve them in self-assessment Use these reflections to track students’ learning progression and adjust instruction (formative assessment) Use students’ last best answer to the essential question as a post assessment, comparing it with the pre (summative assessment). Ask students to compare their pre and post answers and reflect on what and how their understanding evolved (self- assessment) and where they can apply that (transfer)

Dr. Hilarie B. Davis Dr. Bradford T. Davey

For more information NGSS Framework education-practices-crosscutting-concepts Solar System Learning Progression _a_Solar_System_Learning_Progression/ /220071/articl e.html _a_Solar_System_Learning_Progression/ /220071/articl e.html Learning Progressions in Environmental Literacy Learning Progressions in Science (Alonzo and Gotwals) Learning Progressions in Science: An Evidence-Based Approach to Reform (Corcoran) based-approach-reform