2. Outcomes
Deepen knowledge of the new P-12 NYS Science Learning Standards and their implications for the teaching and learning of science K-12.
Examine how the three dimensions of science learning that support these standards are integrated in a model lesson.
Identify “Look-Fors” regarding instructional shifts that should be evident to administrators during science classroom visits and walk-throughs.

3. Agenda Introduction What does science instruction look like now?
Model activity – Integrating the three dimensions
Debriefing the activity
How to read the new NYS P-12 SLS
Reflection and next steps

4. What does science instruction look like in your building?
What are students doing?
What are teachers doing?
What do you look for? What do you see?
Handout: graphic organizer
Give APs a chance to think about science instruction and learning in their building.
Share out and chart responses (to become one side of a T-chart of before and after SLS).

5. Let’s experience a science activity aligned to the new standards…
“Now You ‘Sea’ Ice, Now You Don’t” is a jigsaw activity about the effects of climate change on an ecosystem in Antarctica.
Work with your “specialist group” to interpret the data and information given to you.
In your own words, summarize the general trend(s) or pattern(s) of your data.
Make a list of the questions that come up in your specialist group.
Generate a hypothesis that you think is the most likely explanation for the trends you see in your data. Explain why you think this explanation is most likely.
Introduce the activity. Explain that it is a small slice of a larger activity within a set of lessons, akin to what they might see during a walk-through.
Handouts: 1) Now you “sea” ice intro; 2) Specialist Report Sheet; 3) Specialist Data Sheet

6. Debriefing the Activity
What did science teaching and learning look like in this activity? (compare to your current “look-fors”)
Have APs use other half of T-chart on graphic organizer handout.
Chart responses as second half to the T-chart made earlier.

7. Debriefing the Activity
What opportunities does this provide for highly effective teaching practices?
Strand
Highly Effective
Critical Attributes
1e: Designing Coherent Instruction
The sequence of learning activities follows a coherent sequence, is aligned to instructional goals, and is designed to engage students in high-level cognitive activity. These are appropriately differentiated for individual learners. Instructional groups are varied appropriately, with some opportunity for student choice.
• Activities permit student choice.
• Learning experiences connect to other
disciplines.
• The teacher provides a variety of appropriately challenging resources that are differentiated for students in the class.
• Lesson plans differentiate for individual
student needs.
3b: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques
The teacher uses a variety or series of questions or prompts to challenge students cognitively, advance high-level thinking and
discourse, and promote metacognition. Students formulate many questions,
initiate topics, challenge one another’s thinking, and make unsolicited contributions.
Students themselves ensure that all voices are heard in the discussion.
• Students initiate higher-order questions.
• The teacher builds on and uses student responses to questions in order to deepen
student understanding.
• Students extend the discussion, enriching it.
• Students invite comments from their classmates during a discussion and challenge one another’s thinking.
• Virtually all students are engaged in the discussion.
Refer to Danielson 1e, 3b, 3c, 3d. (Use SmartCard as reference for facilitators.)

8. Debriefing the Activity
What opportunities does this provide for highly effective teaching practices?
Strand
Highly Effective
Critical Attributes
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Virtually all students are intellectually engaged in challenging content through well designed learning tasks and activities that require complex thinking by students. The teacher provides suitable scaffolding and
challenges students to explain their thinking. There is evidence of some student initiation of inquiry and student contributions to the exploration of important content; students may serve as resources for one another. The
lesson has a clearly defined structure, and the pacing of the lesson provides students the time needed not only to intellectually
engage with and reflect upon their learning but also to consolidate their understanding.
• Virtually all students are intellectually engaged in the lesson.
• Lesson activities require high level student thinking and explanations of their thinking.
• Students take initiative to improve the lesson by (1) modifying a learning task to make it more meaningful or relevant to their needs, (2) suggesting modifications to the grouping patterns used, and/or (3) suggesting modifications or additions to the materials being used.
• Students have an opportunity for reflection and closure on the lesson to consolidate their
understanding.
Refer to Danielson 1e, 3b, 3c, 3d. (Use SmartCard as reference for facilitators.)

9. Debriefing the Activity
What opportunities does this provide for highly effective teaching practices?
Strand
Highly Effective
Critical Attributes
3d: Using Assessment in Instruction
Assessment is fully integrated into instruction, through extensive use of formative assessment. Students appear to be aware of, and there is some evidence that they have contributed to, the assessment
criteria. Questions and assessments are used regularly to diagnose evidence of learning by individual students. A variety of forms of feedback, from both teacher and peers, is accurate and specific and advances learning. Students self-assess and monitor
their own progress. The teacher successfully differentiates instruction to address individual
students’ misunderstandings.
• Students indicate that they clearly understand the characteristics of high-quality work, and there is evidence that students have helped establish the evaluation criteria.
• The teacher is constantly “taking the pulse” of the class; monitoring of student understanding is sophisticated and continuous and makes use of strategies to elicit information about individual student understanding.
• Students monitor their own understanding, either on their own initiative or as a result of tasks set by the teacher.
• High-quality feedback comes from many sources, including students; it is specific and
focused on improvement.
Refer to Danielson 1e, 3b, 3c, 3d. (Use SmartCard as reference for facilitators.)

10. What is 3-Dimensional Science?
Three-dimensional science instruction “thoughtfully and deliberately” integrates the following aspects of science learning:
Science and engineering practices
Disciplinary core ideas (content)
Crosscutting concepts (themes across science disciplines)
Explain that activity was “3D” and what this means

11. Science & Engineering Practices (also listed in the NYC Science Scope & Sequence)
Asking questions & defining problems
Developing and using models
Planning and carrying out investigations
Analyzing and interpreting data
Using mathematics and computational thinking
Constructing explanations and defining solutions
Engaging in argument from evidence
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

12. Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science content, specific to the discipline under study
Similar to current NYS MST Standard 4

13. Crosscutting Concepts (also listed in the NYC Science Scope & Sequence)
Patterns
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Systems and System Models
Energy and Matter
Structure and Function
Stability and Change

14. A look at the structure of the SLS…
Performance Expectations
(assessable components)
Performance Expectations added by NYSED
Performance Expectations describe what students should be able to do at the end of the grade band. They are three-dimensional.
Clarification Statements: provide additional clarification to the PE
Assessment Boundaries: clarify limits to large-scale assessments

15. Understanding Performance Expectations
“[P]erformance expectations are not a set of instructional or assessment tasks. They are statements of what students should be able to do after instruction. Decisions on how best to help students meet these PEs are left to states, districts, and teachers.” -NGSS

16. Foundation Boxes
These boxes list the Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs), Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCs) related to the performance expectations.
Codes in parentheses designate which PEs incorporate the practice, idea, or concept
DCIs preceded by (NYSED) indicate an addition to the SLS not present in NGSS
Connections to “Nature of Science” and/or “Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science” may also be listed

17. Connection Boxes Connection to other DCIs in the same grade band
Connections to other grade-bands
Connections to CCLS
Literacy - reading and writing standards in science and technical subjects
Mathematics
PE Codes in italics indicate a potential connection, rather than required prerequisite knowledge

18. Where are we now? NY State Adoption and Rollout
Handout: NYSED C&I printout
This is the page as of

19. Where are we now? NY State Adoption and Rollout
Handout: NYSED C&I printout

20. Instructional Shifts in Your School
Consider the T-chart we made, and the comparison table in “NGSS: An Overview for Principals”

21. Instructional Shifts in Your School
What does a shift to the new standards mean for your school?
What do your students need?
What do your teachers need?
What does your building need?
Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, hopes, and concerns with us on post-its!

22. Planning Your Next Step
Think and then share with a partner:
What is your next step?

24. The Science Team
Linda Curtis-Bey Executive Director – STEM
Greg Borman
Director of Science
Nadya Awadallah Citywide Instructional Lead – Elementary School Science Adaliz González Citywide Instructional Lead – Middle School Science
Ingrid Buntschuh Citywide Instructional Lead – High School Science
Teneika Benn Citywide Instructional Lead – MSP and STEM
John Tom Urban Advantage Liaison
Anna Poole
Citywide Lead Instructional Teacher – Secondary Science 24 24