The Next Generation / AERO Science Standards: From Standards to Storyline and Assessment

During our two days together we will alternate between wearing our student hats and working to understand our standards and develop storylines and assessment. Wearing our student hats will allow us to better understand the reasons for some of the conceptual and pedagogical shifts put forward in this new vision for science education and also to experience three-dimensional learning.

While we may not leave with fully developed storylines or assessments, we should be able to get phenomena and scenarios in place that will serve us well as we engage with our students in our classrooms.

This two-day workshop will aim to attend to those relatively new to these standards and as well as those who have been working for a few years to bring these ideas to their young learners.

CONNECT & ENGAGE

By engaging with phenomena and shifting instruction from 'learning about' to 'figuring out,' we can create engaging learning experiences that are coherent from the student perspective. Students are motivated to understand the world around them – and they do so by constructing their own understanding of it.

By creating a community of young learners who figure science ideas out together, these two ideas are leveraged to boost students’ motivation to ask questions and encourage them to understand that the science and engineering practices are tools for answering those questions, making sense of phenomena and solving problems. By engaging in this type of learning as students we will be better able to understand our role in the classroom and to empathize with the learners that we nurture.

LEARN

Creating these engagements for our learners is not easy. What is this instruction supposed to look like? What makes a good anchoring phenomenon? How do I incorporate the crosscutting concepts? How do I assess the practices and crosscutting concepts? How can I assess the quality of a resource I find online?

For a variety of reasons (that we will discuss), these standards and this new vision are challenging to fully understand and implement. Developing a more coherent picture of what this instruction looks like as well as how the standards are meant to be interpreted and brought to life in our classrooms will give us the confidence to know when we are on the right track.

No matter where you are currently in your journey, I am confident our time together will better your understanding and your ability to bring these standards and this new way of learning to your young people.

REFLECT & APPLY

After each learning engagement we will take time to process what we have experienced and consider what this might look like in our own classrooms and what might be required to bring this new vision of instruction and learning to our young people.

We will take time as well to look at our own grade level standards and make sense of what information is there, how to process it and how to imagine and implement storyline (unit) and assessment development.

While participants will not leave with fully developed storylines or assessments, attendees should be able to get phenomena and scenarios in place that will serve them well and guide them in their thinking as they engage with their students in the classroom.

OUTCOMES

• Clarify existing understandings about the science standards and the three dimensions;
• Experience three-dimensional instruction;
• Reflect on the conceptual shifts and the elements of the three dimensions;
• Consider how many of the shifts embodied in A Framework for K-12 Science Education serve to promote equity;
• Consider key aspects of three-dimensional assessments;
• Engage in a protocol for storyline and assessment development;
• Work to develop a storyline or assessment framework.

Please bring your laptop/tablet to this session.

Save paper and effort where possible!

For your convenience, and to support our efforts in being "green", all handouts/files posted here have been notated with an A, B, C or D indicating the following:

(A) hardcopies needed at workshop
(B) electronic version on laptop is sufficient (for viewing during the workshop)
(C) required reading PRIOR to the workshop
(D) file not needed for workshop itself, but simply material of additional interest/reference

(B) Landing Page