1. Engineering Skills: Build a Hot Air Balloon
NGSS Engineering Design: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions. (ETSMS1-1)

2. NGSS vs. Cali Standards
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.” --Yogi Berra
NGSS: Knowledge is the starting point; the goal is to apply the knowledge within constraints of purpose and usefulness.
Cali Standards: Students understand stuff and can define academic vocabulary.

3. Approach to Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
NGSS: Allows me to integrate more than one scientific discipline. Allows portfolio-type assessment possibilities.
Cali Standards: Narrow focus isolates concepts from each other, prevents encouragement of integrative skills.

4. Lessons Learned
Students are capable of more than we think, at all levels of cognitive abilities.

5. Advice to those new to NGSS:
*Internalize the Engineering Design Standards
*Reflect the Engineering Design Standards in your lesson planning (you are modeling for the students, be transparent and use your lesson planning as a lesson in itself)
*Teach the other standards via a wide variety of modeling in concert with concept and vocabulary development