All Three-Dimensional Learning resources
Journal Article
Community Connections to Support Early Science Learning
Community resources offer extensions of early science learning that can deepen connections to the local ecosystem. This column offers ideas to extend early childhood classroom science through community mapping....
By Alissa Lange
Journal Article
We are now a decade past the release of the NGSS —an event that has shaped the way we teach science. The NGSS, with its three-dimensional approach encompassing disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), science and engineering practices (SEPs), and cross-cutt...
By Patricia McGinnis
Journal Article
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
Journal Article
Socioscientific Modeling: Helping Students See Systems and Understand Messy Issues
In this article we present a strategy to help students unpack complex, socioscientific issues. We outline a 90-minute learning experience where students are asked to explore the complicated cause and effect relationships that shaped the course of the...
By Eric Kirk, Troy Sadler, Zhen Xu, Jamie Elsner, Li Ke, Laura Zangori, Rebecca Lesnefsky
Journal Article
Pedagogical approaches for supporting students’ argumentative writing in science laboratories have not been fully established. This paper examines the development of argumentative abilities in undergraduate students enrolled in chemistry laboratory...
By Ruomei Gao, Judith Weinstein-Lloyd, Jody Cardinal
Journal Article
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...
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...
By , ,
Journal Article
Exploring Socioscientific Issues through Evidence-Based Argumentation with MEL Diagrams
Critical thinking skills are best taught as students participate in the scientific practice of argumentation. When engaged in scientific argumentation students are expected to engage in active listening and social collaboration through the process o...
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...
Reports Article
Freebies and Opportunities for Science and STEM Teachers, January 9, 2024
By Debra Shapiro
Journal Article
Classroom communities are more than just teachers and students. Administrators, other teachers and students, teacher aides, all school staff, families, friends, community leaders, and more influence a classroom community in different ways. Places and...
By Jonathan McCausland and Kathryn M. Bateman
Journal Article
Performance Assessment as Part of Efficient, Effective, and Equitable Instructional Practice
Since the release of the NGSS, science classrooms across the United States have shifted science learning away from a focus on decontextualized facts and concepts and toward engaging students in making sense of the world around them. Many educators ha...
By Lauren Stoll and Jill Wertheim
Journal Article
Teach Sublimation With Markers!
Sublimation, the change of state from solid to gas, is a challenging concept for many students to grasp and a curious phenomenon to investigate. Our everyday experiences teach us about melting, freezing, and evaporation, but it is rare to witness sub...
By Christine G. Schnittka and Mark Brenneman