Implementing NGSS in Secondary Science Classrooms

NSTA 2015 Summer Institute

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Introductions

SRI InternationalNon-profit science research institute in Menlo Park, CA

ChristopherJoe

CREATE for STEM InstituteMichigan State University East Lansing, MI

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How Well Do You Understand the Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS?1. I don’t. Should I?

2. I’ve heard of the Framework and NGSS, but don’t really know how it impacts students.

3. I’m familiar with the Framework and NGSS, but I have questions and would like more specifics

4. I’m very familiar with the Framework and NGSS. I may be able to help others understand what it is and its impact.

What will we do today?

• Build similar understanding of the Framework and NGSS

• Discuss some new ideas to move forward

• Allow time for questions, discussion and interaction

Learning goal for today’s talk: you can explain 3-dimensional learning to a colleague

Science, engineering and technology…• are not a luxury • serve as cultural achievements

and a shared good of humankind• permeate modern life and as

such are essential at the individual level

What population of students does the Framework and NGSS target?

Science for All Students

• critical to participation in public policy and good decision-making

• essential for ensuring that future generations will live in a society that is economically viable, sustainable and free

What’s new in the Framework and NGSS?

1. Focus on explaining phenomena or designing solutions to problems

2. 3-Dimensional Learning1. Organized around disciplinary core explanatory

ideas2. Central role of scientific and engineering practices3. Use of crosscutting concepts

3. Instruction builds towards performance expectations

4. Coherence: building and applying ideas across time

5. Engineering as a DCI

Bringing a 3-Dimensional Perspective to Classroom Instruction & Assessment

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What is 3-Dimensional Learning?

• Three-dimensional learning shifts the focus of the science classroom to where students use disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts with scientific practices to explore, examine, and explain how and why phenomena occur and to design solutions to problems

Why Core Ideas??

• Scientists and experts structure knowledge around conceptual frameworks – guide how they solve problems, make

observations, and organize and structure new information

• Core ideas provide the anchor to create frameworks for integrating related concepts and principles for meaningful understanding

What’s so special about disciplinary core ideas?

• Fewer, clearer, greater depth• Allow learners to develop understanding that can be used

to solve problems and explain phenomena.• Serve as thinking tools

– Not what is but provide reasons for phenomena

• Allow individuals to explain a variety of phenomena

At what temperature does water boil?•Why does water boil at 100°C?

•Why does water,H2O, a relatively light molecule boil at 100°C when carbon dioxide, CO2, a much heaver molecule compared to water, boils at a much lower temperature, -57°C?

Let’s examine the boiling of water a bit more

Let’s examine the boiling of water a bit more

• A range of electrical forces with varying strengths tend to dominate the interactions between objects and/or matter.

• There is a single quantity called energy due to the remarkable fact that a system’s total energy is conserved.

• Energy is best understood at the microscopic scale, at which it can be modeled as either motions of particles or as stored in force fields.

What’s the point?

Electrical Interactions is a core idea in NGSS, yet few of our students today understand this essential idea!

Moreover, NGSS focuses on students making sense of diverse phenomena by using this core idea.

How are all of these phenomena, events we experience in everyday life, related?

A range of electrical forces with varying strengths tend to dominate the interactions between objects and/or matter.

http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~herpsgh/yamorikabe.jpg

How are DCIs Different than Science Concepts?

• The Framework and NGSS move teaching away from a focus on presenting numerous disconnected facts to a focus on a smaller number of disciplinary core ideas which learners can use to explain phenomena and solve problems

1. Patterns

2. Cause and effect

3. Scale, proportion and quantity

4. Systems and system models

5. Energy and matter

6. Structure and function

7. Stability and change

Why Use Crosscutting Concepts?

Ideas that cut across and are important to all the science disciplines

Provide different lenses to examine phenomena

Science and Engineering Practices

The multiple ways of knowing and doing that scientists and engineers use to study the natural world and design world.

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1. Asking questions and defining problems

2. Developing and using models

3. Planning and carrying out investigations and designing solutions

4. Analyzing and interpreting data

5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions

7. Engaging in argument from evidence

8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

The practices work together – they are not separated!

What’s the value of scientific practices?

• Practices shift the focus from science classrooms as an environment where students learn about science ideas to places where students explore, examine and use science ideas to explain how and why phenomena occur.

• Science instruction should focus on figuring out how phenomena work!

What is 3-Dimensional Learning?

• Three-dimensional learning shifts the focus of the science classroom to where students use disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts with scientific practices to explore, examine, and explain how and why phenomena occur and to design solutions to problems

Scientific ideas are important, but not enough!

• Understanding content is inextricably linked to engaging in practices. Simply “consuming” information leads to declarative, isolated pieces of information.

• Research on how students learn shows that students can’t learn disciplinary content without engaging in disciplinary practices, and they can’t learn these practices without learning the content

• To form useable understanding, knowing and doing cannot be separated, but rather must be learned together

• Allows for problem-solving, decision making, explaining real-world phenomena, and integrating new ideas.

Content and Practice Work Together to Build Understanding: 3-Dimensional Learning

• Scientific ideas are best learned when students engage in practices

• Practices are learned best when students use them to engage with learning specific scientific ideas

• Content and practices co-develop – 3-dimensional learning

Core Ideas

Practices

Crosscutting Concepts

An Analogy between 3-Dimensional Learning and Cooking

Kitchen Tools & Techniques(Practices)

Basic Ingredients(Core Ideas)

Herbs, Spices, & Seasonings

(Crosscutting Concepts)

Preparing a Meal(Three dimensional Learning)

Questions and Comments

Pause and Reflect

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Overview of EQuIP

I. Alignment to the NGSS

II. Instructional Supports

III. Monitoring student progress

1. Three dimensional: Supports students in three dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena or design solutions

Supports learning for all students through meaningful scenarios, supporting practices, supports phenomena and representations

Assessments evaluate three-dimensional learning; include formative; are accessible and unbiased

2. Coherence:Lessons fit together coherently, develops connections

Provides guidance for teachers to build coherence across the unit

Pre, formative, and summative aligned to three-dimensional learning

What should we look for in designing or deciding on materials?

The lesson/unit aligns with the conceptual shifts of the NGSS:1. Elements of the science and engineering practice(s), disciplinary

core idea(s), and crosscutting concept(s), blend and work together to support students in three-dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena or design solutions.

How NGSS is Different

Standards expressed as performance expectations:

• Combine practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts into a single statement of what is to be assessed

• Requires students to demonstrate knowledge-in-use

• PEs are not instructional strategies or objectives for a lesson

• Intended to describe the end-goals of instruction

Describe Achievement, Not Instruction

Standards articulate a clear vision of the learning goals for students

Standards articulate the student performance at the conclusion of instruction

Standards are NOT a description of curriculum. Standards do NOT dictate instruction.

Performance Expectation

How do we move further? How do I support students in reaching a PE?

Building toward the following PE

Can I make new stuff from old stuff?

Phenomena-drivenQuestions

Make sense of phenomena with science practices What we figured out

Carry out investigation;Ask questions

DQ: How can I make new stuff from old stuff? Copper Chloride and Aluminum reaction

Questions about changes in matter to guide future

investigations

What happens to properties when

substances combine?

Is burning a chemical reaction?

Are fat and soap the same or different

substance?

Different substances have different properties

An evidence-based explanation for how fat and soap are different

substances

Explanation: a chemical reaction occurs when substances interact and atoms combine in new ways

Burning is a chemical reaction in which one reactant is oxygen and products include carbon dioxide

Carry out investigation;Analyze & interpret data

Analyze & interpret data; argue, construct

explanation

Analyze & interpret data; argue, construct

explanation

Analyze & interpret data; argue, construct

explanation

What properties distinguish fat from

soap?

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Scientific and Engineering Practices

In earlier lessons students constructed scientific explanations.

What is a scientific explanation?

A discussion/argument of how or why a phenomenon occurs and the conditions and consequences of the observed event

A Framework for a Scientific Explanations

• Claim: a conclusion about a problem. Typically the claim answers a question

• Evidence: scientific data that supports the claim

• Appropriate and sufficient evidence

• Reasoning: a justification that shows why the data counts as evidence to support the claim using appropriate scientific principles

• Consider alternative explanations

• Adapted from Toulmin’s model of argumentation

CER Framework Adapted from Toulmin (1958)

Data

Data

Data

Scientific ideas &reasoning

Evidence

Evidence

Evidence

Claim Not Claim 2 because of evidence and reasoning

Rebuttal

From: McNeill, K. L. & Krajcik, J. (2011). Supporting grade 5-8 students in constructing explanations in science: The claim, evidence and reasoning framework for talk and writing. New York, NY: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Question

Discussion Questions(before the investigation)

• What do you think might happen when you mix substances together with other substances?

• How would you know whether new substances are formed?

Let’s look at phenomena

• When you mix substances together, how would you know whether new substances are formed?

What we have figured out so far

• Matter is composed of atoms & molecules in constant motion.

• Substances can exist in solid, liquid, and gaseous states.

• Substances have characteristic properties that help identify substances and distinguish them from one another.

• Solubility, density, and melting point are properties of substances.

What will we do?

Step 1: Determine solubility

and Observe

Substance Solubility Observations

Sodium Bicarbonate

Calcium Chloride

Sucrose

Step 2: Combine all 3 solid substances with

water and observe

Observations

Baggie Investigation

Part 1:• work in groups to conduct investigation

• record your dataPart 2:• construct a scientific explanation that accounts for what happened when substances were combined

Write a scientific explanation that states whether new substances were formed after combining the baking soda, powdered sugar, road salt, and water. • Claim: (Write a statement that responds to question.) • Evidence: (Provide scientific data to support your claim. Use

appropriate and and sufficient data. • Reasoning: (Connect your claim and evidence to show how your

data links to your claim. Also, tell why your data counts as evidence to support your claim by using scientific principles. Remember, reasoning is the process where you apply your science knowledge to answer the question.)

• What New Questions do you have?

Constructing an Explanation

Lunch Break

We’ll reconvene in 1 hour…

Baggie Investigation

Part 1:• work in groups to conduct investigation

• record your dataPart 2:• construct a scientific explanation that accounts for what happened when substances were combined

With your neighbor

Pair & Share• Pair and critique one another’s

explanations• We’ll invite 1-2 groups to share aloud

Write a scientific explanation that states whether new substances were formed after combining the baking soda, powdered sugar, road salt, and water. • Claim: (Write a statement that responds to question.) • Evidence: (Provide scientific data to support your claim. Use

appropriate and and sufficient data. • Reasoning: (Connect your claim and evidence to show how your

data links to your claim. Also, tell why your data counts as evidence to support your claim by using scientific principles. Remember, reasoning is the process where you apply your science knowledge to answer the question.)

• What New Questions do you have?

Constructing an Explanation

Scaffolding Practices

• Scaffolds provide students with support for completing challenging tasks they normally could not accomplish on their own. • Provide structure for complex tasks.

• Making scientific thinking explicit to students can facilitate their use and understanding of these strategies.

• Revealing the underlying and tacit framework of practices (e.g., scientific explanation) can facilitate students’ grasp of the nature of practices

Assessing Explanations

How do we create rubrics that assess 3-dimensional learning?

Assessing ExplanationsPrompt• Write a scientific explanation that states whether new substances were formed

after combining the sodium bicarbonate, sucrose, calcium chloride, and water.

Why Unpack Science Practices?

The unpacking process enables you to:• Understand what it really means to “do” the practice• Identify the essential components of the practice • Pinpoint the knowledge and skills students need to use in order to

show that they can perform the practice • Describe levels of performance for the practice that can be used to

develop rubrics

This process is of high value because it:• Promotes consistency in your use of practices within and across

lessons and for assessment items/tasks• Ensures sustaining the essential aspects of the practice across science

disciplinary topics• enables appropriate linking of practices

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Our Process for Unpacking Practices

1. Describe the practice and its components• What does it mean to “do” the practice?• What are the essential components of this practice?• What possible intersection might there be with other

practices?2. Identify the requisite knowledge and

skills• What knowledge and skills do students need to use in

order to show that they can perform the practice?

3. Specify features of a high level of performance • What evidence would you expect to see for each

component?

• What are the different levels of performance for each component?

Resources we use: NRC Framework, NGSS Appendix F, NSTA publications on science practices, research literature (e.g., NRC reports)

Constructing ExplanationsDescribe the practice and its componentsScientific Explanation:A written or oral response to a question about how or why a phenomena occurs that is supported by evidence.

Components of the Practice:A scientific explanation has 3 essential parts –• Claim: a testable statement or conclusion that

typically answers the question• Evidence: scientific data that supports the claim;

consisting of appropriate and sufficient evidence• Reasoning: a justification that shows why the data

count as evidence to support the claim and includes appropriate scientific ideas/principles 50

Constructing Explanations (cont’d)

• Results of data analysis and output from models can be used as evidence for explanations

• Investigations may inform the construction of explanations

• Scientific arguments critique or defend the strength/validity of explanations

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Intersection with other practices

3-Dimensional Rubric

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• Did this activity engage you, the learner, in 3-dimensional Learning?

• Did it build towards the PE?

Pause and Reflect

What performance expectation are we building towards?

Science and Engineering Practices

The multiple ways of knowing and doing that scientists and engineers use to study the natural world and design world.

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1. Asking questions and defining problems

2. Developing and using models

3. Planning and carrying out investigations and designing solutions

4. Analyzing and interpreting data

5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions

7. Engaging in argument from evidence

8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

The practices work together – they are not separated!

How would EQuIP evaluate this lesson on three dimensional learning? 1. Elements of the science and engineering practice(s),

disciplinary core idea(s), and crosscutting concept(s), blend and work together to support students in three-dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena or design solutions.

a. Provides opportunities to use specific elements of the scientific or engineering practices(s) to make sense of phenomena or design solutions

Do the materials clearly point out how students use elements of the practice to make sense of phenomena or design solutions?

Poll• Yes• No

What performance expectation are we building towards?

How would EQuIP evaluate this lesson on three dimensional learning?

1. Elements of the science and engineering practice(s), disciplinary core idea(s), and crosscutting concept(s), blend and work together to support students in three-dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena or design solutions.

b. Provides opportunities to construct and use specific elements of the disciplinary core idea(s) to make sense of phenomena or design solutions

Do the materials clearly point out how students use elements of the DCIs to make sense of phenomena or design solutions?

Poll• Yes• No

1. Patterns

2. Cause and effect

3. Scale, proportion and quantity

4. Systems and system models

5. Energy and matter

6. Structure and function

7. Stability and change

Why Use Crosscutting Concepts?

Ideas that cut across and are important to all the science disciplines

Provide different lenses to examine phenomena

How would EQuIP evaluate this lesson on three dimensional learning?

1. Elements of the science and engineering practice(s), disciplinary core idea(s), and crosscutting concept(s), blend and work together to support students in three-dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena or design solutions.

c. Provides opportunities to construct and use specific elements of the crosscutting concept(s) to make sense of phenomena or design solutions

Do the materials clearly point out how students use elements of the crosscutting concepts to make sense of phenomena or design solutions?

Poll • Yes• No

Summary: Evaluating the focus on 3-dimensional learning

1. Elements of the science and engineering practice(s), disciplinary core idea(s), and crosscutting concept(s), blend and work together to support students in three-dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena or design solutions.

Poll • Yes• No

Build toward the following PE

Why build towards a performance expectation(s)?

Establish Coherencea. Lessons fit together coherently

a. Science ideas build upon each other so that they become more sophisticated over time

b. Lessons link together

• Where appropriate, disciplinary core ideas from different disciplines are used together to explain phenomena.

• Where appropriate, crosscutting concepts are used in the explanation of phenomena from a variety of disciplines.

Can I make new stuff from old stuff?

Phenomena-drivenQuestions

Make sense of phenomena with science practices What we figured out

Carry out investigation;Ask questions

DQ: How can I make new stuff from old stuff? Copper Chloride and Aluminum reaction

Questions about changes in matter to guide future

investigations

What happens to properties when

substances combine?

Is burning a chemical reaction?

Are fat and soap the same or different

substance?

Different substances have different properties

An evidence-based explanation for how fat and soap are different

substances

Explanation: a chemical reaction occurs when substances interact and atoms combine in new ways

Burning is a chemical reaction in which one reactant is oxygen and products include carbon dioxide

Carry out investigation;Analyze & interpret data

Analyze & interpret data; argue, construct

explanation

Analyze & interpret data; argue, construct

explanation

Analyze & interpret data; argue, construct

explanation

What properties distinguish fat from

soap?

Think • Pair • Share: Lessons LearnedLessons Learned• Institute materials can help

teachers adapt current instructional materials for NGSS

• EQuIP is a tool for checking alignment of lessons & units and is available at NGSS and at NSTA web site

• NGSS allows teachers to be more creative and have more autonomy in building toward student achievement of the performance expectations

Questions Remaining• How can we reconfigure instructional

materials for 3-dimensional learning?• How do we reconcile NGSS with other

standards, such as IB? How do they relate? • How will new state standards (NGSS) change

state testing?• What will summative assessment look like?

What about Formative???• How will the evidence statements be of help?

How should we use them?• What will be the impact on publishers with

only 13 states adapting NGSS thus far?• How does a teacher learn how to do this kind

of teaching?• Students are new to this as well -- what can

we do to help students make the shift?

The dream: engaging students in constructing scientific explanations

throughout K – 12 Students of all ages and backgrounds can take part in explanation!

Grades K - 2 Grades 3 - 5 Middle School High SchoolUse information from observations (firsthand and from media) to construct an evidence-based account for natural phenomena

Use evidence (e.g., measurements, observations, patterns) to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem

Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students’ own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Greater sophistication

Bringing a 3-Dimensional Perspective to Classroom Instruction & Assessment

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• Business is not the same!

• NGSS is different!• Revolution and not

evolution

A concluding message

• By focusing on core ideas blended with practices and crosscutting concepts, classrooms become learning environments where teachers and students have time to engage in science by designing and carrying-out investigations and making and debating claims supported by evidence and reasoning.

• A project-based approach allows learners to engage in making sense of phenomena or designing solution to problems by the three dimensions working together.

Questions??????

• Questions about three dimensional learning• Questions about Core Ideas• Questions building towards PEs• Questions about practices

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Contact Information

Thank you!

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Joseph Krajcik krajcik@msu.edu Twitter: @krajcikjoe

Christopher Harris christopher.harris@sri.com

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers 1316903, 1316908, and 1316874. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.