1Grade K Menu Day Professional Development

Heinrich SartinElementary Science Specialist, ESC Northheinrich.sartin@lausd.net

Educational Service Center NorthThursday, February 5, 2015

Achieving Scientific Literacy through NGSS

2Today's Agenda

• Introduction

• Norms for Professional Learning Communities

• Engineering Design in the NGSS (Engineering Challenge)

• The Nature of Science (Black Boxes Task)

• Connections to the Common Core State Standards

• Evaluation

3Professional Learning Community Norms Be present

Start and end on time

Silence cell phones

Value each other’s input

Listen to understand

Focus on what the data tells us

Ask the hard questions

Think outside of the box

What is learned here leaves here

Be open to sharing and collaborating

4Engineering Design Task

• Cut a hole in an index card that is large enough to pass your entire body through

• Your finished product needs to be a continuous piece of paper that has not been reattached in any way

• Work with a partner to accomplish this task • You have 20 minutes

5Engineering Design Task

Solution Steps

1. Cut a slit down the middle of the index card.

6Engineering Design Task

Solution Steps

2. Beginning at one end of the slit, make alternating cuts from the inside and outside on one side of the card.

7Engineering Design Task

Solution Steps

3. Continue making cuts until you read the other end of the slit.

8Engineering Design Task

Solution Steps

4. Mirror the cuts on the other side of the card.

9Engineering Practices

• The engineering practices are a natural extension of science practices.

• Science instruction often includes opportunities for students to engage in engineering practices.

10Engineering Design (3 Components)

1. Defining the problem

2. Designing solutions

3. Optimizing the design solution

11Engineering Design in Grades K-2

• Engineering design in the earliest grades introduces students to “problems” as situations that people want to change.

• Students can use tools and materials to solve simple problems, use different representations to convey solutions, and compare different solutions to a problem and determine which is best.

12Engineering Design for Elementary Grades• Students in the elementary grades are

not expected to come up with original solutions, although original solutions are always welcome.

• Emphasis is on thinking through the needs or goals that need to be met, and which solutions best meet those needs and goals.

13The Grade K Engineering Standards

• As a table team, examine the following three Engineering Design Performance Expectations for grade K on page 11: K-2-ETS1-1, K-2-ETS1-2, and K-2-ETS1-3.

• Select one of these performance expectations and discuss how students in grade K could demonstrate mastery through a performance task.

14Comparing CA Standards with NGSS Performance Expectations

Know

Do

Know & Do

Current CA Science Standards

• Students know objects fall to the ground unless something holds them up.

• Students will write or draw descriptions of a sequence of steps, events, and observations.

Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.

NGSS Performance Expectations

15Grade

KEarth

SciencePerformance Expectation

Scientific & Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

CrosscuttingConcepts

Connections to CCSS

16

Performance

Expectations

Scientific and

Engineering

Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting

Concepts

Dimension 1

Dimension 2

Dimension 3

17Why New Standards?

The U.S. ranks 27th out of 29 developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving undergraduate degrees in science and engineering.

SOURCE: NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

18Why New Standards?

Nearly 90 percent of high school graduates say they’re not interested in a career or a college major involving science, technology, engineering or math, known collectively as STEM, according to a survey of more than a million students who take the ACT test.

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

19Timeline for NGSS Implementation

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

• 2014-2015 – NGSS awareness training for teachers. Teachers will continue to use the current California science standards, but are encouraged to implement the NGSS scientific and engineering practices and try a few NGSS lessons.

• 2015-2016 - Formal instructional shifts will begin to prepare for full implementation with anticipated adoption of new instructional materials.

• 2016-2017 – First year of NGSS full implementation using new science materials. Possible field testing of new science assessments

20Engaging in the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

I found some black boxes. Each one has a round object inside. They are permanently glued and taped shut, so I can’t open them. Can you help me figure out what the inside of the these boxes look like?

21Focus Question #1

What does the inside of your box look like? • Work in teams of two• Write down questions that you have about

your black box.• Write a short description of what you think

the inside of the black box looks like and include a detailed drawing with labeled parts

• Focus on shape and location

22Black Boxes

Sharing Ideas

Locate the chart paper for your box (A-D) and draw your team’s idea of what the inside of your black box looks like.

23Black Boxes

Collaboration & Consensus

Get together with another team that has the same black box (A-D) and come to consensus about what the inside of your black box looks like.

24Black Boxes

Consensus Drawing

Choose a representative from your combined group of four to draw a revised plan of your black box.

25Black Boxes

Focus Question #2

How did working with other scientists change your original thinking about your black box?

26Black Boxes

Debriefing the Experience• The term “black box” is a general term scientists

and engineers use to describe a system that works in mysterious or unknown ways.

• For most people, a TV is a black box. Electricity goes in and a picture miraculously appears on the screen. A telephone is another example of a black box.

• What are other examples of black boxes?

27Black Boxes

Debriefing the Experience• Which NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

were evident?• How does this lesson connect to CCSS ELA and

math standards and practices?

Practices in Mathematics, Science, and English Language Arts*

Math Science ELAM1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

M2.  Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

M3.  Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

M4.  Model with mathematics.

M5.  Use appropriate tools strategically.

M6.  Attend to precision.

M7.  Look for and make use of structure.

M8.  Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

S1.  Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering).

S2.  Developing and using models.

S3.  Planning and carrying out investigations.

S4.  Analyzing and interpreting data.

S5.  Using mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking.

S6.  Constructing explanations  (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering).

S7.  Engaging in argument from evidence.

S8.  Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.

E1.  They demonstrate independence.

E2.  They build strong content knowledge.

E3.  They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

E4.  They comprehend as well as critique.

E5.  They value evidence.

E6.  They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

E7.  They come to understanding other perspectives and cultures.

* The Common Core English Language Arts uses the term “student capacities” rather than the  term “practices” used in Common Core Mathematics and the Next Generation Science Standards. 

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STEPHEN PRUITT, ACHIEVE SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND LEAD DEVELOPER OF THE NGSS

“…continue to teach what you are currently teaching, but endeavor to modify how you teach it—align instruction with the guidance provided in the Framework regarding implementation of the scientific and engineering practices.”

What Can Teachers Do Right Now?

30Science and Engineering Practices in Grade K• As a table team, discuss how you could begin to

implement the Science and Engineering Practices into your existing science instructional program.

• Which of the Science and Engineering Practices would you choose to focus on and why?

31Summary• We are all learning this together.• Engineering design in science will be new for CA.• Feel free to do more research by reading the

Framework and the NGSS.• Locate and examine NGSS science lessons on the

Internet to see how the three dimensions work together with the Performance Expectations.

• Begin to integrate the Scientific and Engineering Practices into your science lessons.

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Resources for Further Research and Learning• The Next Generation Science Standards:

http://www.nextgenscience.org

• A Framework for K-12 Science Education http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13165

• NGSS Videos from Paul Anderson (Bozeman Science)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9SrSBGDNfU

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Thank you!Heinrich SartinElementary Science SpecialistESC North OfficeEmail: heinrich.sartin@lausd.netPhone: (818) 654-3717