All Sensemaking resources

Journal Article

Just Because It Sounds Plausible, Doesn’t Mean It’s True

Plausible scientific arguments abound. Those who wish to deceive often weave a tangled web of plausible scientific arguments to support their case. What can the science teacher do to prevent their students being duped? Given that many of the claims a...

By Jonathan Osborne

High School Literacy Sensemaking Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

From Windy Day Stories to Wind Farms of the Future: Leveraging student resources to make sense of science phenomena with Data Puzzles

This article introduces the Data Puzzles instructional framework as a means to engage middle school students in the exploration of wind energy and its potential for future wind farm locations across the United States. By eliciting and leveraging stud...

By Jonathan Griffith, Melissa Braaten, Ann Dubick, Anne Gold

Environmental Science Learning Progression Phenomena Sensemaking Teaching Strategies Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Medical and cancer-STEM education for underrepresented minority elementary school students in Audiology, Gastroenterology and Osteology/Orthopedics

The goal of the University of Southern California (USC)/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center funded Wonderkids Program is to develop medical and cancer themed curricula for elementary students in an after-school program in the Los Angeles area. Wonder...

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Careers Equity Inclusion Sensemaking Social Justice STEM

Journal Article

Moving Beyond Equity-as-Access to Expanding What Counts as Science in the Elementary Classroom

Making science accessible is an important and worthy goal, but for many students, science is inaccessible because what counts as science in the classroom is narrowly defined as what is known as western science, rooted in Europe in the 1600s and often...

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Elementary Equity Inclusion Multicultural Sensemaking Teacher Preparation Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Eliciting Student Thinking

Interdisciplinary Sensemaking Teaching Strategies Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Discover student thinking while analyzing data…and having fun! (Data Literacy 101)

Our students rarely practice data skills with data not related to our science content, which makes sense given all we must teach. But always asking our students to succeed at the data skill move (e.g., graphing, analyzing, interpreting) and the conte...

Middle School Literacy Sensemaking Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

The Science Practice of Modeling as a Sensemaking Tool

Does the scientific practice of modeling actually support students in making thinking visible? Middle school teachers can build from the work of 12 K–8 teachers who wanted to learn how the practice of modeling is developed across grades and analy...

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Middle School Pedagogy Sensemaking Teaching Strategies Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Making Scientific Sensemaking Visible

Many teachers and schools are coming to recognize the importance of sensemaking in the science classroom. But what does an NGSS-informed sensemaking lesson look like in practice, and how might our students respond to this shift in our instruction? Th...

Middle School Crosscutting Concepts Disciplinary Core Ideas Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Practices Sensemaking Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Making light work of gravity: Scaffolding middle schoolers’ thinking to help them understand gravitational lensing.

Although the NGSS has helped teachers conceptualize teaching science in a more integrated way, effectively scaffolding students’ thinking within and across lessons can still be a challenge for any middle school science teacher. Thinking about the c...

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Physical Science Sensemaking Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Promoting Sensemaking Through an Impactful Instructional Sequence

A valuable framework for promoting sensemaking includes the convergence of two independent ideas: (1) the focus of modern education on teaching for understanding and transfer, and (2) a purposeful sequence of instruction with those ends in mind. In ...

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Middle School 5E Crosscutting Concepts Disciplinary Core Ideas NGSS Science and Engineering Practices Sensemaking