K-12 Science Education Maria C. Simani, Ph.D. Executive Director, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A New Framework for K-12 Science Education

Maria C. Simani, Ph.D. Executive Director, California Science Project maria.simani@ucr.edu

Outline

• 1. About CSP and NRC
• 2. Motivations for developing the new science framework
• 3. Key features of the framework
• 4. Implications, reflection and examples of the new vision
• 5. Timeline and future steps of the process

Please interrupt and ask me questions at any time!

About the California Science Project

• One of the 9 California Subject Matter Projects
• A statewide network of subject-specific professional

development programs for K-12 teachers

• Authorized by California Statute in 1988
• 18 CSP sites housed on UCs, CSUs and independent

universities campuses

• Provide support to the CA Department of Education
• Local site: the Inland Area Science Project

http://csmp.ucop.edu/csp/

The New Framework

• Released July 2011 by

the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences

• Defines what students

should know for their lives and roles as citizens in a scientifically complex world

Vision: Science for All Students

• STEM permeate nearly every facet of modern life
• STEM also hold the key to meeting many of humanity’s

most pressing current and future challenges

• Yet too few U.S. workers have strong backgrounds in

these fields and many people lack the fundamental knowledge of them – national need

• Understanding of science and engineering is critical to

participation in public policy and good decision-making

• - From the Executive Summary of A Framework for K-12 Science

Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

Why a new science framework and new standards now?

Why a new science framework now?

• Last CA adoption of science

standards: 1998 (14 years ago…)

• The framework provides

intellectual guidance for the standards

• Our knowledge about learning and

teaching science has advanced during the past decade

• Opportunity to improve current

teaching practice

• Include advances in scientific

knowledge

• Resolve the problem of too many

disconnected topics, not treated in enough depth

Who wrote the new framework?

• Board on Science Education at the National Research Council

Content Design Team

The process: a coherent vision

(more about the timeline later) Structure of the Report

• Part I: A Vision for K-12 Science Education
• Part II: Dimensions of the Framework
• Part III: Realizing the Vision

Phase 1 - completed Phase 2 – in progress Phase 3 – planning

http://www.nextgenscience.org/

http://www.nextgenscience.org/

Achieve - Process Phase 2

• Set timeline for the project
• Translation of conceptual framework into standards accomplished

by a 26-state design teams (41 members)

• Independent review team at the state level (~60 members/state)
• Revision of draft standards includes public input (2 opportunities)
• NRC Study Committee check of fidelity of standards-framework
• Includes Engineering and Technology in addition to Science

experts

• Partnership development is a must for ensuring coherence

Unique aspects of the conceptual framework

The 3 Dimensions of the Framework

1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering) 2. Developing and using models 3. Planning and carrying out investigations 4. Analyzing and interpreting data 5. Using mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking 6. Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering) 7. Engaging in argument from evidence (claim vs. evidence) 8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Scientific and Engineering Practices used by Scientists and Engineers

Do your students engage in the practice of scientific argumentation?

Do your students…

• Use modeling for understanding?
• Compare alternative explanations and evaluate evidence

for each, and attempt to reach consensus?

• Go beyond explaining an important scientific idea by

justifying what evidence and logical reasoning support that idea?

• Science is both a body of knowledge and the

processes that develop and refine that knowledge

• 1. Patterns
• 2. Cause and effect: Mechanism and explanation
• 3. Scale, proportion, and quantity
• 4. Systems and system models
• 5. Energy and matter (flows, cycles, and conservation)
• 6. Structure and function
• 7. Stability and change

Provide students access to connection of knowledge

Crosscutting Concepts

What does qualify as a core idea?

A scientific core idea for K-12 science instructions is an idea that:

• Has broad importance across multiple science or engineering

disciplines or is a key organizing concept for a single discipline

• Provides a key tool for understanding or investigating more

complex ideas and solving problems

• Relates to the interests and life experiences of students or can

be connected to societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technical knowledge

• Is teachable and learnable over multiple grades at increasing

levels of depth and sophistication

PS 1: Matter and its interactions PS 2: Motion and stability: Forces and interactions PS 3: Energy PS 4: Waves and their applications in technologies for information transfer

Less is More; Depth vs. Breadth

Physical Sciences

LS 1: From molecules to organisms: Structures and processes LS 2: Ecosystems: Interactions, energy, and dynamics LS 3: Heredity: Inheritance and variation of traits LS 4: Biological Evolution: Unity and diversity

Less is More; Depth vs. Breadth

Life Sciences

ESS 1: Earth’s place in the universe ESS 2: Earth’s systems ESS 3: Earth and human activity

Less is More; Depth vs. Breadth

Earth and Space Sciences

ETS 1: Engineering design ETS 2: Links among engineering, technology, science, and society

Less is More; Depth vs. Breadth

Engineering, Technology, and the Applications of Science

• Incorporates a decade of research based approaches

and findings on how students learn science most effectively

• Focused on limited number of core ideas and practices.
• Calls for full integration of content knowledge and the

practices needed to engage in scientific inquiry

• Standards will emphasize all three dimensions not

strictly content knowledge.

How is the new framework different?

• Identifies the key scientific ideas and practices all

students should learn by the end of high school

• Serve as the foundation for new generation of K-12

science standards.

• A guide for curriculum, professional development and

assessment designers, teacher educators, and others who work in K-12 science education

How will the new framework be used?

• Students cannot fully understand science core ideas without

engaging in the practices of inquiry and the discourses by which such ideas are developed and refined

• Students should explore science core ideas by making

connections to cross cutting concepts

• Students show competence in practices within the context of

specific content

• Performance expectations will be linked to standards and

require integration and will describe to some extent how students should be assessed.

Realizing the vision: Next Generation Science Standards

Integrating the 3 dimensions in standards, assessment, curriculum, instruction

Example: what is food? Biofuels as a source of energy

for transportation vehicles.

Curriculum example of engineering practices: Designing Solutions

• You will be the design engineer of a small vehicle. It will have to go

straight, far, and fast and carry a load.

• As the design engineer you will be using science knowledge of force

and motion to learn about how forces affect motion, and conduct investigations to determine how best to achieve the challenge.

• You will design and test the vehicle, modify and re-test it to achieve the

best possible performance.

• Like professional design engineers, you will report on your results and

progress.

(from NSF-funded curriculum, 2009)

“Science is not just a body of knowledge that reflects current understanding of the world; it is also a set of practices used to establish, extend and refine that knowledge. Both elements– knowledge and practice--- are essential.”

Guiding assumption of the framework

• 1. Both elements knowledge (core ideas and crosscutting

ideas) and practices are essential and must be integrated into current instruction and curriculum

• 2. Avoid the teaching and learning of the competencies of

inquiry in isolation.

• 3. Knowledge and practices are aligned and provide

progress from grade to grade.

• 4. Assessment of student performance should focus on

use of knowledge through the practices – developing and applying scientific ideas to make sense of phenomena

Implication for Teaching and Learning

• 1. July 2011 - New framework released
• 2. November 2011 – NGSS 1st partner states review
• 3. February 2012 – NGSS 2st partner states review
• 4. March/April 2012 – NGSS 1st public review
• 5. More state and public reviews…
• 6. December 2012 – NGSS final draft
• 7. March 2013 – CA State Board presentation for Adoption
• 8. July 2013 – (if 7) Adoption of NGSS
• 9. Text books aligned....?

Timeline for NGSS

Next (Concurrent) Steps

• Outreach and dissemination of the Framework and

NGSS (when publicly available)

• Development of curriculum, assessment and

instructional materials, coordinated by Achieve

• Pre-service preparation for teachers
• Professional development for in-service teachers

Strong partnership building across CA and National education agencies

Debrief

• Are Science Teachers currently incorporating Scientific

practices in their classrooms?

• What are some

• 1. A Framework for K-12 Science Education; NCR, 2011

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Standards_Framework_H

• mepage.html
• 2. ACHIEVE: http://www.nextgenscience.org/
• 2. NSTA: http://www.nsta.org/ngss

References and Resources