JoinAll Crosscutting Concepts resources
Journal Article
Methods and Strategies: Teaching the Nature of Science to Elementary Students
This column provides ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month’s issue shares activities so that elementary students can lea...
Blog Post
The Engineering Design Process: A Middle School Approach
To support the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Middle School Engineering Design, we have three goals for our students: to define problems acc...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Gravitational Interactions and 3-D Learning in Middle School
I recently embarked on a journey with K–8 teachers in Vermont to learn how to be intentional about planning for three-dimensional (3-D) learning in ...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
How NGSS and CCSS for ELA/Literacy Address Argument
In the summer of 2015, I observed an elementary science teacher from an NGSS-adopted state who made a presentation to her cohort of close to 100 K–1...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Using Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) Strategy to Improve Student Learning
This past school year, I used claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) statements to show three-dimensional learning in my classroom. Several tools are availa...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
You Teach What? I’m So Sorry! Building a Better Body and Building Better Argumentation
I am always amazed at the looks on people’s faces when I tell them I teach middle school. They seem to pity me for having a position I chose and lov...
By Cindy Workosky
Journal Article
The Early Years: Taking Math Outside
This column discusses resources and science topics related to students in grades preK to 2. This month’s issue uses children’s interest in collect...
Blog Post
When I began aligning my instruction to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), I got lost in the details. But when I realized that phenomena co...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Using the Crosscutting Concepts to Scaffold Student Thinking
At the recent NSTA National Conference in Los Angeles, three-dimensional learning was, of course, a major topic of discussion. When those discussions ...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
At the core of a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) classroom is the sequence of exposing students to an interesting natural phenomenon, having ...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Introducing Crosscutting Concepts in the Elementary Grades
Four years ago, I moved from teaching middle school science to teaching grades 2–5 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) la...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Digging Deeper: Designing Solutions
This month’s Digging Deeper column for the Next Gen Navigator focuses on the practice of constructing explanations and designing solutions, and spec...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
How I Came to Understand the Three Dimensions
When I first started teaching science, I taught the facts. I taught the nine planets (before Pluto got demoted; sorry, Pluto!), the steps of mitosis, ...
By Cindy Workosky