Hello everyone! Below is the homework for the August 16th discussion about the Next Generation Science Standards. There are three parts. (Never fear. All parts are small and amusing.) 

The second part is an activity to get us exploring the NGSS online. Please note that this activity is just to get feet wet, not to understand the full breadth and depth of the standards. While you could spend a week surfing around the NGSS website, you could do this activity in 15 minutes.

1. Watch: Video introduction to the NGSS (7 minutes long, by Montana teacher Paul Anderson)

2. Explore: The Standards from a Spark/UCAR Point of View

  1. Consider: What are our core ideas that we usually teach at Spark? (What do we hope people learn from us to help them be scientifically literate in a 21st Century world?)
  2. Go to http://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards-dci  and search the standards with Spark’s core ideas in mind.
    1. Choose a grade and Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI) and click “search” (or choose a DCI from the grade bands below).
    2. Now you are looking at the performance expectations (white box), Science and Engineering Practices (blue), DCI (orange), and Crosscutting Concepts (green), plus links to ELA and Math standards below.(Lost? There is a link to “how to read the standards” on each page below the standard header.)
    3. You found a DCI!
      1. Note the name and number of the DCI and how it relates to what we teach at Spark.
      2. Note what Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts are associated with the relevant DCI.

3. Read: Opportunities and Challenges in Next Generation Standards (Stage et al 2012, Science V.340, p. 276-277)

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Discussion topics for Aug 16, 9:00 am at the ML Classroom

  1. Share results from our standards explorations: Which DCI relate to what we do at Spark? Which grade levels? How are engineering and crosscutting ideas included?
  2. Opportunities and challenges: What’s useful about these? What’s not? How do we, or should we, incorporate/utilize the NGSS in the many projects we do at Spark?
  3. The future: How would we like to move forward? What do we need moving forward?

 

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NGSS Tag up notes (from Wendy and Lisa 8/19/13)

On 16 Aug 2013 many members of Spark met in the ML Classroom and participated in a discussion about the newly available Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The homework and meeting were identified and lead by Lisa. Here are some of the key discussion points:

- Lisa shared that States do not have to adopt NGSS, but it is the hope that they will adapt these new standards (as they did with Common Core ELA and math standards). States currently have science standards that may be based in National State Education Standards (NSES) and/or 2061 Benchmarks. 

- We already share how our educational resources align with standards and we will ADD in NGSS to the list.

- NGSS is better for Earth Science, and includes an engineering and hands on aspect that we are very excited about and fits better for Spark and UCAR. NSTA is pushing NGSS.

- We are excited about creating materials, hands on, kits, etc that fill gaps that NGSS identifies and will even help us create students who better understand similarities and differences between science and engineering. This will help them be better prepared for graduate studies as well.

- We spent a lot of time talking about NGSS, engineering, system science, computational science, and possible applications around UCAR science. We discussed the difference in science process between engineering and physics as compared to earth system science and that all are valuable. To address the Science and Engineering Practices section of the NGSS, we discussed starting/growing conversations with HAO, EOL, CISL, RAL, COSMIC to name a few in order to relate directly to NCAR/UCAR science. (Randy noted that computational science is planned for a future place in the Spark website.)

- Even if states do not adopt the standards (Colorado has not), teachers are showing interest in adopting the approach as a strategy for teaching. (Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary, and Cross cutting concepts all being considered). Science teachers are showing interest in the NGSS emphasis on inquiry and skills.

- We noted that a brainstorm on engineering education with interested NCAR and Ed Group members could be helpful to relate emergent technologies to NGSS and education gaps that exist and find funding to make progress!

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Want more info?

 “How to Read the NGSS” is helpful if you are wondering about all those colors and columns in each standards table

http://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/ngss/files/How%20to%20Read%20NGSS%20-%20Final%20060313_0.pdf

Executive summary to the NGSS

http://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/ngss/files/Final%20Release%20NGSS%20Front%20Matter%20-%206.17.13%20Update_0.pdf

Evolution and Climate Change in the NGSS

(A short article from the National Center for Science Education)

http://ncse.com/news/2013/04/evolution-climate-change-ngss-0014800