NSTA 2023 – Kansas City

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Thursday, October 26 • 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

Curriculum implementation is complicated and requires significant planning so that the system, including everyone in it, can make the needed shifts in practice to reap the benefits of using high-quality instructional materials to strengthen science teaching and learning. Participants will have a common experience with “a change” and consider important lessons that can help them lead change in their systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leaders can create a culture that is conducive to the significant changes in knowledge, beliefs, and practices required to support the implementation of high-quality instructional materials for next generation science.

SPEAKERS:
Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Thursday, October 26 • 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

This session will outline work that Saint Paul Public Schools, BSCS Science Learning, and OpenSciEd have done to adapt OpenSciEd materials to support standards implementation and district equity goals. The session will explain key considerations and modifications needed to align materials with domain-specific standards, while maintaining curricular coherence from the students’ perspective. The team will share professional learning strategies to develop teachers’ professional capacity to use the goals and key instructional elements of OpenSciEd as lenses for enhancing standards alignment and enhancing the meaningfulness of students’ learning. The team will share features of responsive partnerships that attend to local context and support teachers and leaders as they shift classroom practices and partner together in the adaptation work. Participants will then apply lessons learned to consider implementing or adapting OpenSciEd curriculum in their local contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn what considerations are important for developing a well-crafted plan for implementing and adapting OpenSciEd for use in their local contexts. Presenters will highlight key resources that can be instrumental for supporting desired shifts.

SPEAKERS:
Abraham Lo (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Matt Krehbiel (OpenSciEd: New York, NY), Michael Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Thursday, October 26 • 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

Curriculum implementation requires a robust professional learning program to support teachers in making the shifts toward three dimensional, phenomenon- and problem-driven science teaching and learning called for in NRC’s Framework for K-12 Science Education. This experience is grounded in BSCS Science Learning’s new instructional model, Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL), and an immersion model of professional learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leaders can support teachers with making the instructional shifts called for in the NRC’s Framework through immersive, curriculum-based professional learning programs.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Thursday, October 26 • 2:20 PM – 3:20 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

Interest and identity are key for supporting meaningful science learning for students (NRC, 2012), yet traditional secondary science assessments do not invite students to bring their sensemaking repertoires and interests to assessment tasks. This session shares a research-driven, “five-dimensional” (5D) process for assessment design that grounds students’ interests and identities as co-equal dimensions to the 3 NGSS dimensions. Participants will use 5D Assessment tools to create more meaningful and equitable assessments that better leverage the assets that students bring and support students as knowers and doers of science. Participants will examine features of meaningful, phenomenon-driven assessments and adapt a community survey tool they can use in classrooms to elicit information about their students’ interests and identities. We will share how they can use this information to guide the development of a “5D” assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators engage with the 5D Assessment Project’s tools to elicit and use information about students’ interests and identities to design meaningful, phenomenon-driven assessment opportunities. Work with examples of meaningful assessment aligned to the elements of the NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Abraham Lo (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Sara Cooper (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Thursday, October 26 • 3:40 PM – 4:40 PM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

Leaders will study the Core Design Features and Structural Design Features of curriculum-based professional learning to figure out how they can use them together to support teachers in making the shifts called for in NRC’s Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. These shifts promote three-dimensional phenomenon and problem-driven science teaching and learning. Participants will read and discuss excerpts of the report from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Elements: Transforming Teaching Through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning. They will have opportunities to make connections from the text to the previous two sessions in this series and/or to their prior experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
By attending to Core and Structural Design Features of curriculum-based professional learning, leaders take a systems approach to supporting teachers in the instructional shifts called for by NRC’s Framework. These shifts promote 3-dimensional phenomena/problem driven science teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Belcastro (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Thursday, October 26 • 3:40 PM – 4:40 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

OpenSciEd HS Physics units use a storyline approach to help students figure out answers to their questions in a three-dimensional, coherent, and equitable way. In this session, participants will experience that approach firsthand as they engage with the fifth unit’s anchor in “student hat”, a unit anchored in the use of the microwave and its interactions with wireless devices. Participants will see how students develop and use different models to explore ideas about electromagnetic waves and their interactions with matter. They will also see some of the investigations students plan and carry out using different materials inside the microwave oven to explain energy transfer. Participants will also see how the unit supports students’ sensemaking to explain how different technologies apply these ideas to produce, transmit, and capture signals, and the potential risk associated with their uses.

TAKEAWAYS:
This unit is anchored in the use of the microwave and its interactions with wireless devices. Students figure out and use ideas about waves and their interactions with matter to explain how different technologies apply these ideas to transfer energy and to produce, transmit, and capture signals.

SPEAKERS:
Zoë Buck Bracey (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Diego Rojas-Perilla (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Friday, October 27 • 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

Look across the Essential Elements of Leadership, Resources, and Coherence, to identify enabling conditions for curriculum-based professional learning to ensure that ALL teachers are prepared to leverage high-quality materials as they provide meaningful learning experiences for ALL students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain concrete ideas about how you, as a leader, can plan for effective curriculum-based professional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Friday, October 27 • 9:20 AM – 10:20 AM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

When using OpenSciEd, it is a challenge to help students not only figure out science ideas, but how to work together and support each other. This panel of classroom teachers will explore how to build community in order to help students build rich scientific understandings.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand how community agreements and other strategies are used in OpenSciEd and other high school classrooms to support collective and equitable sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Laura Zeller (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Friday, October 27 • 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

To realize the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards and NRC’s Framework for K-12 Science Education, the NEXUS Academy for Science Curriculum Leadership (a project of WestEd and BSCS Science Learning) developed three guiding equity principles for leaders to consider. These equity principles are integrated with other leadership knowledge bases to support science leadership work to ensure equitable outcomes for all learners as part of implementing high-quality science curriculum. In this session, participants will 1) experience a sample leadership learning experience to reflect on their values and approaches to equity work; 2) engage with the NEXUS Equity Principles and make connections to their own ideas and science leadership roles; 3) consider how the specific tools and resources shared could influence their science leadership work in their context.

TAKEAWAYS:
Beliefs, knowledge, context, and lived-experiences shape approaches to equity work. The NEXUS Academy for Science Curriculum Leadership has developed Equity Principles to consider and intertwine with other leadership knowledge bases as leaders work to ensure equity for all learners in the system.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Friday, October 27 • 1:20 PM – 2:20 PM

STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

We know two things: 1) the purchase of new instructional materials represents a significant district investment and 2) effective classroom use of high-quality instructional materials improves student learning. NextGen TIME can help districts ensure investment in the best possible instructional materials and provide guidance on preparing teachers for effective use. NextGen TIME is a suite of tools and processes to support districts in evaluating, selecting, and implementing instructional materials designed for the NGSS. NextGen TIME is also designed as a professional learning experience for teachers to deepen their understanding of NGSS as they analyze instructional materials. It addresses the needs of states, districts, and schools for a deep understanding of the NGSS to make selection decisions for instructional materials, plan for implementation of those materials, and provide teacher professional learning that enables effective implementation of NGSS-aligned teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how NextGen TIME supports the evaluation of current instructional materials to strengthen their design for NGSS and how NextGen TIME tools and processes can serve as critical components of curriculum-based professional learning. You’ll walk away with free access to NextGen TIME resources.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Friday, October 27 • 1:20 PM – 2:20 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

Designing for justice means centering inquiry on phenomena that cross the artificial boundary between human and natural systems. The result is instruction that not only teaches students to understand the natural world, but broadens their perspectives on how humans fit into natural systems, what constitutes science, and what they can accomplish using science. In high school, some of the design problems that students are noticing in the world may feel overwhelming, but breaking them down using the ideas and practices of science and providing social emotional supports can help students find hope and resilience. For example in OpenSciEd High School Physics, students ask: What can we do to make driving safer for everyone? Consider how instruction can support students in making positive changes in their communities while attending to students social and emotional needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
In OpenSciEd HS Physics, students use science ideas and practices to make sense of design problems that emerge from complex systems at the nature-human divide with attention to students’ social and emotional needs.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Zoë Buck Bracey (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Laura Zeller (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Friday, October 27 • 1:20 PM – 2:20 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

In this workshop we will work through the “anchoring phenomenon” from the OpenSciEd Middle School space unit, which helps students see the relevance of astronomy by drawing on traditional indigenous astronomy knowledge, and students’ own cultural knowledge to engage students in identifying and explaining patterns in the sky that set the rhythm for our lives. Participants will get a chance to experience the anchoring phenomenon, and share their own experience, expertise and ideas, to begin visioning how astronomy education can draw on student and community resources, connect students to traditional knowledge from around the world, and build on natural curiosity about questions that are older than Western history.

TAKEAWAYS:
Anchoring astronomy instruction in phenomena that invite connections between science and students’ identities can support culturally sustaining pedagogy in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Zoë Buck Bracey (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Thomas Clayton (8th Grade Physical Science Teacher: Berkeley Heights, NJ), Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Matt Krehbiel (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Friday, October 27 • 2:40 PM – 3:40 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS call for 3D learning grounded in authentic phenomena and problems to ensure relevant learning for ALL students. Instructional materials design helps achieve these synergistic goals and create meaningful classroom sensemaking and learning. The BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes authentic phenomena/problems to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will 1) consider how AIL integrates elements of the 5E instructional model, NextGen Science storylines, and problem-based learning instructional models; 2) experience a sample lesson to deepen their understanding of the approach, and 3) consider their own education contexts and how they can apply AIL to design meaningful learning experiences for their students.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages authentic phenomena/problems to anchor cycles of inquiry and sensemaking. This approach provides instructional coherence from students’ perspective, equitable access, and motivation for ALL learners.

SESSION LEADERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Friday, October 27 • 2:40 PM – 3:40 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

OpenSciEd Biology units use a storyline approach to help students figure out answers to their questions in a three-dimensional, coherent, and equitable way. In this session, participants will experience that approach firsthand as they engage with the unit’s anchor in “student hat”, experiencing the content as students do in the classroom. Participants will also explore ways to use strategic questioning and the development and use of different models for complex phenomena to encourage students to discuss and advance their understanding about concepts of energy and matter at different levels of systems. Participants will also see how students develop understanding of the changes in matter and energy in these systems through a coherent series of investigations. These investigations include taking measurements when burning peat and other fuels to build understanding of matter and energy capacities, and carbon dioxide production rates for yeast at different temperatures.

TAKEAWAYS:
Complex anchoring and investigative phenomena rooted in cause and effect thinking can deeply engage students in disciplinary core ideas and cross cutting concepts related to energy and matter that span across the disciplines of earth and life science, in systems.

SPEAKERS:
Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Sara Krauskopf (Educational Consultant), DeAnna Lee Rivers (STEMSoul TEACH)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Saturday, October 28 • 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS call for learning that is grounded in real world phenomena and problems to ensure that science learning is relevant to all students. The BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes complex and culturally relevant societal challenges to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will 1) consider their own ideas about teaching complex societal challenges, 2) experience 3D learning and sensemaking strategies and consider the science concepts of a societal challenge (e.g., antibiotic resistance, heart disease, food sustainability, anthropogenic changes to biodiversity), and 3) consider how using societal issues as anchoring phenomena and problems can motivate students and develop agency in addressing complex issues.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages complex societal issues as anchoring phenomena/problems, culminating tasks, and performance assessments in 3D units of instruction to motivate students and develop agency in addressing these issues.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Saturday, October 28 • 9:20 AM – 10:20 AM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

The Framework requires that students engage in three-dimensional sensemaking around phenomena. In OpenSciEd units, this begins with the anchor lesson, in which students engage with a phenomenon in supported ways before generating the questions that drive the unit. Many teachers wonder how we get students to ask questions that align with the learning goals of the unit. In this session, participants will see for themselves how crosscutting concepts can appear in student questions and how those questions are motivated in the lesson. The presenters will discuss the important role crosscutting concepts play in supporting students’ question generation, and participants will have an opportunity to see how students’ initial questions and key crosscutting concepts continue to play a prominent role in sensemaking later in the storyline.

TAKEAWAYS:
Instruction can be designed so that crosscutting concepts are both a tool for student sensemaking as well as a desirable outcome. In particular, crosscutting concepts can help students ask questions that will be productive throughout a storylines unit.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Saturday, October 28 • 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

The Framework calls for students to engage in argumentation from evidence in a way that considers relevant social, ethical, and environmental tradeoffs that cannot be resolved without considering the values of interested parties. As educators, we need to honor students’ diverse experiences and value systems while also engaging students in the process of respectful scientific argumentation. OpenSciEd High School uses the Learning in Places Framework to inform the design of an argumentation tool for students to guide them through the process of weighing science ideas, societal and environmental impacts, and ethical considerations when evaluating potentially controversial arguments and design solutions. Join us to engage with an adapted version of this argumentation process. Participants will explore the Learning in Places Framework for Socio Ecological Decision Making and discuss use of the Learning in Places Framework within the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
The NGSS call for students to weigh complex socioscientific tradeoffs, including social, cultural, and environmental impacts. The Learning in Places Framework can be used to help structure student engagement in argumentation that requires decision making around these tradeoffs.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Zoë Buck Bracey (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Laura Zeller (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Saturday, October 28 • 10:40 AM – 11:40 AM

STRAND: Research to Practice

Science instruction creates rich opportunities to integrate other content areas – particularly ELA or math. Explore a process for designing integration opportunities that allow both domains to support each other. Bring a science lesson plan or use a shared example to try the process together.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will try out a process built upon foundational practices identified in science education and integration research to analyze a science lesson plan for moments of student sensemaking as opportunities for content integration.

SPEAKERS:
Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Amy Belcastro (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Saturday, October 28 • 1:20 PM – 2:20 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

Over the past decade, researchers and practitioners have been calling for more attention to coherence from the student perspective as a key part of curriculum design. This type of coherence arises when students see what they do in the science classroom as productive for addressing meaningful questions and problems. A curriculum that is coherent from the student perspective provides opportunities for all students to contribute to class sensemaking. We will present co-design strategies used by OpenSciEd teams to develop high quality, NGSS-aligned instructional materials that are coherent from the student perspective. Participants will engage in a student hat experience to focus on how that lens can support student coherence in materials and instruction. Participants will explore a variety of co-design strategies for building coherence in developing and implementing instructional materials, with an emphasis on coherence from the student perspective through the use of student hat.

TAKEAWAYS:
When designing and revising NGSS-aligned, high quality instructional materials, co-design in student-hat is a powerful tool for weaving together coherence from the teacher’s perspective, within science content, and from students’ perspective.

SPEAKERS:
Zoë Buck Bracey (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Laura Zeller (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Diego Rojas-Perilla (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

PRESENTATION

Saturday, October 28 • 2:40 PM – 3:40 PM

STRAND: Students and Sensemaking

Many students experience high school science without considering the interconnectedness of different domains. By leveraging the Energy and Matter crosscutting concept and uniting this lens with a forces perspective, we consider how a Matter-Energy-Forces (MEF) triangle can help students apply core principles of physical science across multiple domains. We explore the MEF triangle’s use in three different units that highlight Earth and Space Science alongside Biology, Physics or Chemistry to make explicit connections to the crosscutting concept of energy and matter and core life and physical science Disciplinary Core Ideas. Examples include fires, polar ice melt, tectonic plate motion, and meteors. We also consider how this tool could be useful for students over the course of many units and how it can increase access to more difficult life and physical science concepts through the use of this routine. Participants will practice applying the MEF triangle to phenomena in their contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Framework calls for “a common use of language about energy and matter across the disciplines in science instruction.” The MEF triangle uses cues and prompts to draw attention to interactions between matter, energy and forces to help students make sense of complex phenomena across domains.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Diego Rojas-Perilla (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)