Skip to main content

Week 1 blog

  • What question are we investigating in the lab?
    • What is NGSS?
    • What should elementary students learn in science?
    • What are the components of the NGSS?

In the lab, to better investigate the answers to our questions we looked at the NGSS website. We did some group work and class discussion to gather a better understanding of NGSS.


From our research, we found the answers to our questions. In the lab this week we learned that the NGSS is Next Generation Science Standards for K-12. The NGSS are expectations for what students should learn in science class. The NGSS was designed to improve science education for all types of students. NGSS believes that students' learning should not be to memorize information, but instead be able to perform the information they are learning. There are three components to the NGSS as well. The three are Crosscutting Concepts, Science and Engineering Practices, and Disciplinary Core Ideas. Each of these ideas is used to help students research, communication, and analytical thinking skills.

Crosscutting Concepts are used to help students make connections in different domains.

Science and Engineering Practices are used to help students investigate the problem.

Disciplinary Core Ideas are the content the students are learning.  

The NGSS provides the standards by grade level, practice type, the disciplinary core idea, discipline, and crosscutting concept. The standards outline is clean and easy to read while explaining how to use all three dimensions at the same time. The top section explains what is being assessed. The middle-colored boxes are the foundation boxes. The last box is the connection box that explains how these standards connect to Common Core Standards and other DCIs in the grade level. 



Remaining questions:

  • Why do only some states use NGSS? 
  • What do assessments look like when using NGSS?


 


Comments

  1. Karli MaurerJanuary 22, 2023 at 4:00 PM

    Hi Amber, nice first post! I really appreciated your thorough definition and breakdown of the NGSS. I also really liked how you included a photo of a specific standard for an example! As for your questions, I am also curious to know what assessments for NGSS look like. When watching the FAQ videos on the NGSS website (for RR assignment this week), Mr. Evans brought up that creating assessments has been a process but didn't give specifics into what really means. Since NGSS is all about what the students "do" instead of what the students "know", how do you appropriately assess that?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog week 8

This week in lab was our last week to look at our fast-growing plants. Our plants are beginning to grow seeds/beans on them. That way if we wanted to, we could use those seeds to grow a new plant.  In lab, I learned about mutations. There are three types of mutations: Point mutation : a change to a single nucleotide base  Insertion mutation : a genetic change that involves the addition of a segment of DNA (adding one or more DNA bases) Deletion mutation : a type of genetic change that involves the absence of a segment of DNA  This is something new I have learned. To help us learn/understand this we did a superhero lab activity.  How to relate to what you already know?  In class, we talked about how there can be beneficial/harmful mutations. I can relate this to what I notice are harmful mutations. I did not realize that cancer was a mutation, although after thinking about it long I realized how it was. I realized this was a mutation because it is a permanent cha...
3 comments
Read more

Blog week 14

What is melting? Melting is a phase change between a solid to a liquid that happens when applying heat.  Why does the ice melt faster on metal than wood? The reason why an ice cube melts after on metal than it does on wood is because metal is a conductor while wood is an insulator. This matters because of energy. Energy provides heat which causes an object to melt.  Why do cold drinks get water droplets on the outside? When a cold can is brought out of the fridge the hot air outside hits the can. This causes a temperature change to happen on the can making it "sweat." The can begins to condensate from hot air hitting the cold can. Just like clouds, when water vapor hits pockets of air, they begin to form.  Why does the plunger stick to the table? The plunger acts like a vacuum to the table, it suctions down to the table by collapsing down onto the table. It releases all the particles out of the plunger when it is pressed down.  The best part of the class: We met a ne...
2 comments
Read more

Blog week 10

This week in lab we made a story about evolution. My group members and I made a story called "The Little Rhino that Grew." In this story, we described how a rhino grew during evolution from having no horns back thousands of years ago compared to now, which have horns. Evolution can be a hard topic to explain to younger children so putting this complex idea into a children's story may be beneficial for students to be able to understand better.  Parts of our book: I found this activity very fun and engaging. We were able to pick what type of evolution we wanted to describe in our story. We were given the option of animals, plants, or humans. Groups were allowed to design their book with colors, and images, and create their own unique story.  I can see myself using a technique like this in my future classroom. This activity is creative for students to make fun stories about science while learning about the subject at the same time. Creating stories about a certain concept ca...
3 comments
Read more