The Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award recognizes six full-time K–12 teachers of science who successfully use innovation and excellence in their classroom.

District III

Katherine Owens
STEM Teacher
Washington Episcopal School
Bethesda, Maryland

After almost a decade in the consumer product industry as the Vice President of Business Development, Katherine Owens felt a calling to give back to others and to become a teacher. She wanted to join the growing movement of educators interested in exploring and developing new approaches and weaving innovation into the classroom. At her first teaching position Owens developed and taught an in-school pilot STEM program. The class was a great success, and she has been teaching the expanded program to grades 1–5 ever since. This program takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring STEM concepts, their application, and STEM’s relation to invention; invention STEM challenges; and the role of STEM in business and global, social and environmental responsibility. Owens firmly believes that collaboration, creativity, and innovative thinking in STEM education will greatly benefit students for their future success. It is her mission as a STEM educator to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching to as many people as she can touch through her passion and wonderment of science. Nate Dennison, Elementary Grades Director at Washington Episcopal School, says, “It is once in a lifetime to have the privilege of working with and learning alongside a modern day renaissance woman such as Katherine Owens. … Katherine is someone who sees the big picture of schooling and understands the relationship of thinking and learning, questioning and innovating.”

View Katherine Owens’s PowerPoint presentation

District V

Virginia Hall
Science Teacher
Mary G. Montgomery High School
Mobile, Alabama

Virginia Hall immerses her classes in inquiry-based learning (IBL), which encompasses a variety of teaching and learning approaches. She passionately believes that science belongs to all students and actively demonstrates that students with a wide range of diversity and a host of abilities can learn science. Hall takes complicated science topics and designs lessons that enables all learners to gain an understanding of the topic. Furthermore, she encourages students to engage in argument based on evidence, as well as construct explanations and design solutions. Preparing students to use these as well as other vital skills outside the classroom is especially important to her. Students are only in the traditional classroom a short period, so she wants to develop a lifelong learner. Hall is also a NASA teacher leader who has developed lessons to incorporate NASA into the average classroom. She has presented at several conferences in the last year. Stephanie C. LeGrone K–12 Science Supervisor Mobile County Public Schools, says, “I have had the honor to see Mrs. Hall grow and really become my go-to teacher for all things Earth science. She has a passion for science that is unparalleled and has dedicated herself to bettering herself and her craft. … She embodies science and STEM in everything she does and often works tirelessly to ensure her lessons have literacy, numeracy, and data analysis components while still digging deep into the standards.”

View Virginia Hall’s PowerPoint presentation

District IX

Cathy Oates-Bockenstedt
Science Teacher
Eden Prairie’s Central Middle School
Eden Prairie, Minnesota

Cathy Oates-Bockenstedt is fortunate to have had outstanding opportunities for contributions. For 30 years, she has continued the lessons she learned from Dr. Bob Yager back in 1988, when he encouraged the combination of science with technology and society. Students are the main beneficiaries of this dedication. She became an author of two books designed to help preservice teachers get off to a good start in Earth science teaching. Oates-Bockenstedt spent 10 years volunteering on a Foundation Board of Directors, helping to support and enhance excellence in classrooms, through generous grants and student scholarships, throughout her school district. She achieved National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification for Early Adolescent Science in 2004. This certified that she was heading toward excellence in what she knows and is able to do as a teacher. Through it all she has a foolproof system to help keep her motivations high in this amazing career that can be quite challenging. Timothy M. Cooney, University of Northern Iowa Professor Emeritus Earth Science and Science Education, shares, “I have known Cathy for about 37 years. … I strongly believe that you would struggle to find a science teacher more deserving and more qualified than Cathy. [She has] outstanding abilities to motivate and challenge students and in addition, her abilities to motivate and challenge her fellow teachers.”

View Cathy Oates-Bockenstedt’s PowerPoint presentation

District XI

Jennifer Jones
Science Teacher
Ogallala High School
Ogallala, Nebraska

Jennifer Jones’s main philosophy on science teaching is that “science is a verb.” Her students often joke that they “science” through things because they are doing, not just absorbing information. Phenomena-based learning, hands-on learning, application of ideas to the real world, three-dimensional learning, and building science confidence are all important in her teaching process. Jones has adopted phenomena-based storylines as an important anchor in her lesson design, starting each unit with a specific case or instance that students can all observe and experience. She follows the “ABC” rule in her classroom, “activity before content.” Over the past decade, she has made significant contributions to her students, community, and state in the science education field. Jones was an active advocate for science education early in her career and has created a culture of collaboration and sharing among educators. One of her main passions is to ensure that rural students have the same opportunities as those in urban areas. Raelyn DeVries, former student and mentee of Jennifer Jones, says, “She has the ability to understand and meet the needs and learning abilities of those in her classroom while not inhibiting the education of others. She makes it very difficult to have the mentality of ‘Memorize-Regurgitate-Forget’ and instead facilitates learning of overarching concepts and drawing connections between ideas.”

View Jennifer Jones’s PowerPoint presentation

Taking a chance, I asked two colleagues if they would work with me on a webinar about supporting young children’s early engineering problem-solving. They each said “Yes!” and in the process I have been learning much from Carrie Lynne Draper, MEd, and Beth Van Meeteren, PhD. In the webinar we’ll discuss helping children learn to use materials and their surroundings to build and solve problems as part of early childhood education. The children’s engineering we’ve observed included seeking to build a stable tower, using a stick as a tool, and planning a process to take turns. 

Adults and children design solutions to everyday problems such as feeling too hot from being in direct sunlight. Engineering Design K-2-ETS1-1, a “by the end of grade 2” performance expectation in the Next Generation Science Standards, states that children should, “Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.”

While designing sunshades adults and children both may “Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light” (NGSS 1-PS4-3) and “Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose” (NGSS 2-PS1-2).  

I hope you’ll join us for the live webinar through Early Childhood Investigations, “Supporting Young Children’s Creative Thinking Using Problems They Care About: Engineering Design In ECE,” on Wednesday June 5, 2 PM Eastern time, or view the archived version.

Asking questions and sharing your experiences develops the early childhood education community’s ability to support children’s learning so I look forward to hearing from you!

I am student teaching in a first grade classroom and we are going to start covering life cycles. What are some good ideas I can do in my engage section?
— G., Oklahoma

I just answered a similar question about teaching plant life cycles to Kindergarten students. Please refer to Circle of Life 1.0 . I will continue that article here by addressing animal life cycles in early years.

Animal reproduction takes more time than you may have during your practicum. However, there are a few hands-on activities that you may want to use. Obtain some mealworms from a pet store and ask if they can include some pupae and adults. (They might donate them if you tell them it’s for elementary students!) House these in lidless, clear plastic food containers with oatmeal. Mealworms are the grubs (larvae) of darkling beetles and they follow a life cycle like butterflies. Eggs of these beetles are almost impossible to find, but you can ask the students to conjecture how the larvae came about. Students can observe and journal the different life stages. Use magnifiers for real close ups!

If you have a budget and time, consider butterflies (purchased from science suppliers) or lady beetle larvae (available from some garden centers).

I don’t recommend raising mantids – they follow an incomplete metamorphosis cycle (no distinct change between young and adults and no pupal stage). They are predators and extremely cannibalistic. Stick insects also follow incomplete metamorphosis and may not be allowed in all regions, but their eggs are easy to find and they are very easy to feed.

Hope this helps!

This week in education news, state school board committee approved new science standards for Utah public school students; states are beginning to integrate CTE and STEM-related courses into high school graduation requirements; despite evidence suggesting that high-quality instructional materials increase student new science curriculum; researchers argue that policymakers should be willing to invest roughly 15 times more to encourage effective teachers to become mentors; and Harvard economist says we’re losing Einsteins every day.

Proposed Science Standards Head to State School Board

A State School Board committee approved new science standards for Utah public school students in grades K through five and nine through 12, but not before some pushback on the teaching of evolution and climate change. Except for some slight tweaks, the proposed standards were approved by the Standards and Assessment Committee and will be considered for adoption at an upcoming State School Board meeting. Read the article featured in the Deseret News.

Diploma Requirements Still Out of Step with Higher Ed Eligibility in Most States

States are beginning to integrate career and technical education (CTE) and STEM-related courses into high school graduation requirements, and some are also revising diploma pathways to link coursework to postsecondary goals, but the updates fall short of ensuring credits earned make students eligible for admission to colleges and universities, according to a new paper from the Center for American Progress (CAP). Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

How Districts Can Improve Learning Through High-Quality Curriculum

States and districts have been slow to implement high-quality instructional materials and the training to use them, despite evidence of the positive impact on learning outcomes. Read the article featured in District Administration.

Seattle School Board Approves Controversial Science Curriculum

After intense public scrutiny, the Seattle School Board approved the district’s recommended science curricula for the city’s elementary- and middle-school students. The vendor, Amplify Science, came under suspicion over the past month because of the way it was introduced to the district: through a waiver process that included donated or discounted materials from the company, and not a formal districtwide vetting process. Read the article featured in the Seattle Times.

Bus Stops May Be as Good a Place as Any for a STEM Lesson

Be it for school or just running errands, thousands of children and their parents wait for the bus every day. A pilot program in Pennsylvania is trying to squeeze a little more science, technology, engineering, and math learning into those waits. Read the article featured in Education Week.

How Can We Get More Highly Effective Teachers to Serve as Mentors?

Relatively few highly effective teachers take on roles as mentors to student-teachers, researchers say. One solution? Pay them more—a lot more. Read the article featured in Education Week.

There’s A Nationwide STEM Teacher Shortage. Will It Cost Us The Next Einstein?

It’s striking to think about what our world would be missing if it weren’t for Albert Einstein: lasers, GPS, barcodes, to say nothing of our understanding of black holes, time/space, and the relationship between energy and matter. But what if a little boy named Albie E. never became the man known to history as Professor Albert Einstein? Read the article featured in Forbes.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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I first encountered the KLEWS teaching strategy in an article in Science and Children (NSTA 2015), “KLEWS to Explanation-Building in Science.” I shared the article and modeled the strategy with teachers who wanted to support their K–5 students in the science practice of constructing explanations. I really liked the KLEWS chart. About a month ago, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other educators (read as: I needed help) while developing a first-grade lesson about sound. I discovered how KLEWS charts honor students’ ideas about phenomena, support students in developing explanations and models, and help teachers and students connect today with yesterday, and decide where to go next (coherence). Now I L-O-V-E the K-L-E-W-S chart!

The KLEWS chart is a revamped version of the KWL chart (What do we know? What do we wonder? What did we learn?) for science. Columns were added for evidence and science ideas and words (Hershberger and Zembal-Saul 2015).

But I’ll return to the KLEWS chart in a minute.

The Sound Lesson:

I wanted to create an opportunity for students to make sense of the DCI element PS3.A: Sound can make matter vibrate, and vibrating matter can make soundand use the element of the CCC Cause and Effect Events have causes that generate observable patterns as a lens to help students organize their thinking. The phenomenon I chose (and was really excited about) focused on Evelyn Glennie, a deaf percussionist who hears with her feet. In a clip from Sesame Street, Glennie removes her shoes as she prepares to audition for Oscar the Grouch’s band. She tells a confused Oscar that this helps her hear the music.

I wanted to ask the first-grade students to draw a model to explain how someone can hear with their feet (SEP element: Developing and Using Models Develop a model to represent relationships in the natural world) but I wasn’t sure they could. Maybe they could draw the model with some scaffolding, but I wondered how much would be needed.

I reached out to my friend Beth Pesnell for help. Beth is a former elementary school teacher and K–8 math and science curriculum specialist (she is currently pursuing a Ph.D.). She assured me first-grade students could draw a model. “Give them a blank piece of paper!” she said excitedly.

Beth also knew I wanted to give students the opportunity to revise models at different points in the multi-day lesson and asked if I had considered using a KLEWS chart. She listened to my ideas about the lesson and together we made the following plan (details are limited due to space constraints).

Kate and Beth’s Plan

• Post the KLEWS chart in the room.
• Read The Listening Walk to the class. (This book does not steal students’ “ahas” about how we hear or how sounds are made.) The book ends by asking, “How many different sounds can you hear right now? Close your book and count them!”
• Ask students, “What do you think we know about how we hear?” Record their responses under K.
• Introduce the phenomenon (Evelyn Glennie playing drums with Oscar the Grouch); ask students to share their thinking with a partner.
• Ask students to draw (individually) a model to explain how Evelyn Glennie hears with her feet.
• Tell students to put their models away (or collect them) (don’t ask them to share yet).
• Give students the opportunity to explore sound at different stations around the room.
• Say to students “You probably have some new ideas about sound and how we hear. What would you like to change or add to your model?” Give students time to revise their models.
• Ask students to join their predetermined groups and share what they changed or added to their model, and explain why.
• Ask students to share with the class what they heard other students say they added to their model and why. Record their responses in the L column. (I was intentional about where each response was recorded – keeping them next to/in line with related “things we think we know” in the K column.)
• Each time a response is recorded in the L column, ask students for evidence to support the learning. Record the evidence under E, keeping it next to/in line with to the L response it supports.
• In the S column, record the big science ideas students may have verbalized or described in their learning statements. Concepts are recorded in the S column throughout the lesson, when students connect the ideas with their learnings (L column).
• As new “wonderings” are expressed, record them in the W column. (Again, I was intentional where I recorded their questions in this column.)
• This learning experience and model will help inform the engineering design found in 1-PS4-4.

Wow! I was excited to teach the lesson, but also a bit nervous because I hadn’t used the KLEWS chart like this before. I was unfamiliar with the intentionality of where ideas are recorded in the columns, the fluidity between columns, and the navigation back and forth between the chart and student models as the lesson progressed. I wondered if I could find a video to help me visualize how to use the KLEWS chart (spoiler alert: I did).

I found a Teaching Channel blog post titled KLEWS: Supporting Claims, Evidence and Reasoning. The blog instructs educators on how to begin using the KLEWS chart in their classrooms by inviting us to watch third-grade teacher Maria Katsanos and her students using the KLEWS chart for the first time in the classroom. In a series of videos, we see Katsanos use the KLEWS chart to plan her lesson, support student sense-making, and reflect on how it required her to change the way she thought about teaching science. (Thanks to Katsanos for bravely trying something new with an audience for the benefit of other educators and their students.)

As I watched Katsanos and her students, I made notes on my lesson: What should I listen for in students’ conversations? What questions could I ask to get students thinking about their evidence? Which anticipated student “learnings” might lead to concepts/words to record in the S column? I suddenly realized I was collaborating with Maria Katsanos like I had with my friend, Beth Pesnell.

Now I was really excited to teach this lesson.

Before teaching this lesson in the classroom, I planned to use it as an immersion experience for elementary teachers who were new to three-dimensional teaching and learning in service to phenomena. On the morning of the workshop, a teacher expressed concern that she didn’t teach science every day and didn’t know how to help students connect their sense-making from one class period to the next. It was a great question! And when the answer occurred to me, I smiled. Let’s just say I helped her and her colleagues get a KLEWS.

Do you want to collaborate on a KLEWS lesson? Whether you have questions that need answering or expertise to share, join the conversation by commenting below.

Resources:

More about Evelyn Glennie (children’s book)

Millman, I. 1998 Moses goes to a concert. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

More About KLEWS Charts

Zembal-Saul, C., K. L. McNeill, and K. Hershberger.  2013. What’s your evidence? Engaging K–5 students in constructing explanations in science. Pearson.

Hershberger, K , and C. Zembal-Saul. 2015. Methods and strategies: KLEWS to explanation-building in science. Science and Children 52 (6): 66–71.

Kate Soriano has more than 20 years of experience teaching K–12 students science in both formal and informal educational settings. Currently, she is supporting teachers in their transition toward the Next Generation Science Standards. Soriano is an NSTA NGSS Professional Learning Facilitator and Instructional Coach. She also serves on the EQuIP Peer Review Panel for Science. She holds a BS in geology and geophysics from Boston College, an MS in geology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and an MA in education from Humboldt State University.

Note: This article is featured in the May issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

STEM Forum & Expo

• San Francisco, July 24–26, 2019

2019 Fall Conferences

• Salt Lake City,  Oct. 24–26, 2019
• Cincinnati, Nov. 14–16, 2019
• Seattle, Dec. 12–14, 2019

This week in education news, new research finds that the level of level of teacher experience is positively associated with levels of student achievement, particularly for black and Latino students; City of Chicago asking school board to approve $135 million in contracts to four vendors with experience creating curriculum; teachers are presented with new strategies and not given the time and support to unlearn their old practices; study finds integrating the arts into science lessons helps the lowest-performing students retain more content; high school and college STEM students build electric cars for kids with disabilities; experts recommend when children engage with immersive media in their near and distant future, their experiences should be positive, productive and safe; and educators looking to engage students more deeply in STEM subjects may want to consider including humor and outside-the-box projects.

How U.S. STEM Practices Compare Internationally

The OECD recently issued its new book-length report, “Measuring Innovation in Education 2019.” The authors offer some fascinating peeks at how the OECD nations compare when it comes to K-12 policy and practice. Today, I’ll flag five big questions that they help to answer in the case of STEM. (Note: All of the following results were calculated using TIMSS data.) Read the article featured in Education Week.

Report: Teacher Qualifications Best Predictor of Student Success

A new report released by the Learning Policy Institute, “California’s Positive Outliers: Districts Beating the Odds,” indicates students of color — and, indeed, all students — perform better when served by teachers with better qualifications. Further, the research for the report found the proportion of teachers holding substandard credentials is negatively associated with student achievement, and that these teachers are disproportionately assigned to schools in California with higher populations of students of color and low-income students. Read more in the article featured in Education DIVE.

Chicago Teachers to Get New Resources as District Announces $135 Million, Two-Year Curriculum Overhaul

The city is asking the school board to approve $135 million in contracts to four vendors with experience creating curriculum. Through what the district is calling the “Curriculum Equity Initiative,” the companies will work with local officials and educators over two years to create materials that are challenging and sensitive to the varied needs of Chicago students. Read the article featured in Chalkbeat.

Helping Power Pennsylvania Schools

From its many prestigious universities down to its public education system, the Keystone State offers students of all ages the opportunity to learn and thrive. But as public school staff work to expand their students’ minds, school administrators are finding the need to expand their school buildings to accommodate growing populations. Read the article featured on Nasa.gov.

What’s Harder Than Learning? Unlearning

“Unlearning” says that in order for people to transform their practice, they must confront and move beyond their previously held beliefs, assumptions, and values. In other words, it’s a shift in identity. Experts say the method is ripe for teacher professional development: Too often, teachers are presented with new strategies and not given the time and support to unlearn their old practices. Read the article featured in Education Week.

How Arts-Based Lessons Improve Science Performance

Integrating the arts into science lessons helps the lowest-performing students retain more content, and doesn’t require much funding to do. Read the article featured in District Administration.

High School and College STEM Students Build Electric Cars for Kids with Disabilities for Free

A group of high school and college students from Connecticut have come together to build something extraordinary: Fully-functioning electric carts for families who may not be able to afford adaptive wheelchairs. STEM students from New Britain High School and technology education students from Central Connecticut State University built the carts from scratch together. Read the article featured on CBSNews.com

Persistent College-Going Gaps Probed in Latest ‘Condition of Education’ Report

At every step in the college-going process, students from low-income families face a bumpier road than their wealthier peers. That was one finding in the 2019 Condition of Education—the National Center on Education Statistics’ massive compendium of annual education indicators, from enrollment to staffing to achievement—which was released Tuesday morning. Read the article featured in Education Week.

As VR Use Grows in K-12, Researchers Consider its Impact on Children

While the long-term effects on development remain unclear, experts recommend limiting time and ensuring that immersive media experiences are “positive, productive and safe.” Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.

Take STEM Lessons Outside of the Box with These 3 Approaches

Meeting student demand for “participation in fun, science-related projects and competitions” may not be as difficult as it sounds. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

The 8th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA, this July in San Francisco offers a post-secondary track to help educators create STEM-rich learning environments for students. STEM plays a vital role in post-secondary education, whether it’s in the introductory classroom where students are learning about the value of STEM or upper-level classes where students are preparing for STEM-related careers.

The sessions in the post-secondary track at the STEM Forum & Expo will help educators incorporate the value of STEM in their classrooms. For all of the sessions in the track, and to tailor the conference program for your own needs, browse the sessions online and search by date, conference strand, grade level, and more. 

Here are a few of the post-secondary sessions offered:

Thursday, July 25, 9:30–10:30 a.m., Rm. 3022, Moscone Center West

Preparing Students for Actual Science

Join for a discussion of how students are trained to be scientists emphasizing intuition and non-specialized knowledge rather than using the scientific method to make discoveries.

Speaker: Ed Fenimore, Emeritus Fellow

Friday, July 26, 9:30–10:30 a.m., Rm. 3022, Moscone Center West

Activism in the Science Classroom: Where to Draw the Line? 

As instructors, we want to reflect on how to balance activism and adversarial attitudes among students and faculty in the science classroom. How do we present the science and address student claims supported by examples in the media?

Speakers: Annissa Furr, Professor, Kaplan University; Tyra Hall-Pogar, Professor, Purdue Global University

Friday, July 26, 1:30–2:30 p.m., Rm. 3022, Moscone Center West

Nontraditional Students: New Prospects for Qualified STEM Educators at Rider University

The speakers will share the unique experiences of two undergraduate scholars and their nontraditional paths to careers in STEM education.

Speakers: Laura Ramirez, Undergraduate Student, Rider University; Kimberly Konczyk, Student, Rider University

Educators from all grade levels will gain valuable STEM teaching strategies and resources at the 8th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA. This unique, focused event brings together (informal and formal) educators and representatives from exhibiting companies who are interested in, and who have tools and resources to share that will ensure successful implementation of STEM education into our schools and communities. It is intended to provide resources for educators and organizations seeking to learn more about STEM education, associated outreach programs, partnerships, schools, and curricula.

I am working on a lesson plan for the life cycle of a plant for kindergarten. Do you have any activity ideas?
— K., Oregon

If you’re teaching about life cycles of flowering plants you should incorporate all the life stages.

Start by growing plants from seeds—particularly large, easily available seeds like peas or beans. I’m sure you’re aware of the zip-top plastic bag and wet paper towel activity. (Soak the peas or beans overnight.) Students will see where plants come from and you can discuss the different parts of an adult plant. Have students identify the same structures in the plants and trees they see on a nature walk.

Flowering plants create the next generation via their flowers. You can purchase inexpensive, fresh flowers and dissect the different parts. (Ask students about potential allergies.) Make sure to cut open the ovary, a harder, thicker section just below the petals. This contains tiny unfertilized ovules— waiting for pollen to develop into seeds. Use magnifiers to examine the ovules and look closely at the other structures on the flowers.

Buy fresh pea pods, bean pods, and fruit. Open them to see the seeds. Where do the fruit and pods come from? Flowers! Photos of fruit trees in bloom or a nature walk during the blooming season will connect the two. You can have great discussions about the fruit we eat! Consider incorporating a talk about pollinators, particularly bees.

A search of The Learning Center will provide you with ideas, lessons and articles on this subject.

Hope this helps!

Picture Credit:  johndavi from Pixabay 

If you were to walk into our classroom years ago, you would see students from all walks of life, and with a range of ability levels. All of the students were blended together to learn science and were eager to be engaged. We were teaching units that were not sequenced, and our focus was on memorization and expecting student to regurgitate information to perform well on a state assessment. The pressure to ensure the entire curriculum was covered and high test scores maintained meant that student understanding became secondary.

The NGSS have brought a breath of fresh air into our classroom. We now look at every student differently and expect all of them to learn many science and engineering skills that can help them meet their personal post-secondary goals, regardless of whether they go into the sciences.

Since the NGSS were released in 2013, we started working in our PLCs and planning how we can integrate the science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. We wanted to explore how the notion of phenomena and “figuring out” fit it into what we were already doing. We attended more training and met with peers, and we thought we finally understood, even experiencing our own “aha” moments. But it wasn’t until we experienced a phenomenon as student learners in a training session that we understood how the three dimensions support one other.

It occurred when a peer spoke about the phenomenon of a young man who had died from drinking too much water and wondered if it was possible for water to cause death. She had us use a model to illustrate how the kidneys functioned and experience the same models completed in her class.  By connecting the science idea to the kidneys’ function we were able to look through the lens of the crosscutting concept to explain the science more deeply. This “aha” moment began a  chain of events where we both began to learn how we could transform our classroom to one in which all students feel invested in and connected to their science education.

Today we are enthusiastically learning and applying what we have learned about the NGSS. We first tried our hands at using some of our old resources to see if they fit with the new way of starting with phenomena, then going into a storyline, but it didn’t feel right. We were using the practices and crosscutting concepts and teaching the DCIs, yet it felt disjointed. We realized we needed a model of what this looked like in the classroom, so a friend pointed us to www.nextgenstorylines.org, which is a fantastic resource. We found our new love! 

Our first storyline centered on a young girl named Addie, and it was through her storyline that we were able to see what a genuine phenomenon looked like to the students. We realized rather quickly that our units lacked coherence and didn’t effectively integrate the dimensions. They were often choppy and students didn’t see how each piece of the dimensions could support their learning. We learned in an actual NGSS storyline the students are learning about the phenomena and the lessons they are taught are intentionally selected in the sequence to support students building the science ideas to grasp the phenomena.

Tackling a storyline was challenging at first, but now we are on our third cycle of Addie’s storyline, and we have added two other storylines under our belt. Our motivation is more than just using ready-made units; it was our students who made it clear what we were doing mattered. When we first introduced the phenomena of either Addie or the children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), our students immediately started asking questions. They were truly interested and began to build their understanding. Their focus started to be about collecting evidence to support their ideas.

Our students had a voice in their learning, and we made every piece of information an intricate part of the puzzle. Together we worked to ensure we could all see the big picture. One of our favorite things has been for us to see where our kids first started in their thinking, and then looking at their completed models. We marvel at how much they have learned through authentic experiences.

We are especially moved by the inclusivity of these units. When we are intentional about weaving the three dimensions together and connecting to a phenomenon we make room for every student in the classroom to be empowered and to take risks while learning about science. We don’t teach at our students in our classes now, teaching is more of a partnership with them. Our students have a voice, and we move together collaboratively to figure out the science we need to explain the phenomena we have all experienced. To be honest, this is precisely what we have always imagined teaching and learning should feel like. We engaged our students through the use of modeling throughout the storyline to allow student to explain their learning combined with many other practices intertwined. We would love to hear from you! Have you used storylines in your classroom? What practices or crosscutting are you using to support your students? We want to celebrate with you, please share with us here!

Student Initial Model

Student End of Storyline Model

Michelle Schuster is a high school biology teacher in Florence, Kentucky. This is her 20^th year teaching at Boone County High School where she is also an alumni. Schuster holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. She is a member of the Boone County Science Teacher Leader Committee where she serves as an ambassador for her school aiding in the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards within the district. She works as an Online Advisor for the National Science Teacher Association in the NSTA Learning Center; where she contributes to discussions in online forums with educators across the county. Schuster has been team teaching biology with Jessica Holman for four years. Schuster pours her drive and passion for science into every lesson her students experience.

Jessica Holman is a special education teacher at Boone County High School. She has worked in education for 10 years in both North Carolina and Kentucky. Holman holds a bachelor’s degree from Winston Salem State University in special education and a master’s degree in teacher leadership with a certification in instructional technology. She is active in her role as a science teacher leader in her school district; she collaborates with peers and works to integrate instruction into her blended learning classroom. Holman has worked with educators across the state of Kentucky to communicate educational strategies that support the learning and growing of fellow educators. She is motivated by the opportunity for equitable education through the implementation of the NGSS and works hard to ensure every student feels accepted and encouraged to learn science.

Note: This article is featured in the May issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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