PLI #4

About the Session

Come join us to see how OpenSciEd’s materials can help you build science learning experiences anchored in compelling phenomena and in important community and global problems. This professional learning institute (PLI) will simultaneously prepare you to teach the first unit in the OpenSciEd biology course and provide the support you need to advance your practice so that learning is both driven by student questions and helps them develop proficiency with targeted three-dimensional science standards in life sciences and Earth and space science. To achieve this goal, this session will put teachers in the “student hat” so they can feel what it’s like to be a student whose thoughts and questions help drive learning forward in the unit. We do science together with the facilitator acting as the teacher and reflect on coherence in the unit by unpacking the storyline for the unit. We will open up and explore the structure of units for all three courses of OpenSciEd–biology, chemistry, and physics–and discuss the routines and resources to promote equitable science learning in high school. Follow-up sessions you can attend throughout the conference will dig deeper into other courses in OpenSciEd and provide practical strategies for implementing OpenSciEd in your classroom.

Kate Henson

Kate Henson is the Director of K-12 STEM Teaching and Learning at inquiryHub and the Co-Director of the OpenSciEd High School Developers Consortium based at the University of Colorado Boulder. Kate is a former high school science teacher. She holds a BS and MS in Biology and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, Science Education.