Goals & Purpose
This course is focused on a Question (Big Question). The activities are divided into five features.
Feature 1 – Big Question
In Feature 1 of the course, you will be asked to respond with your initial ideas related to the Big Question. In every additional feature of the course, you have the opportunity to provide any further thoughts or questions that arise.
- What are the major conceptual shifts of the Next Generation Science Standards?
- How can you use these shifts to inform classroom practices?
Feature 2 – Explore the Evidence
Feature 2 of the course is a group of related activities where you are required to collect and explore some evidence related to the content of the Big Question. This evidence is used throughout the remaining features of the course.
- Explore the three dimensions; Science and Engineering Practice (SEP), Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI), and the Crosscutting Concept (CCC) used to develop the Next Generation Science Standards
- Collect evidence from both a reading and video clip related to the Scientific Big Idea
Feature 3 – Constructing Explanations
Feature 3 of the course involves analyzing your evidence and using it to generate an explanation (also called a claim statement) about the ideas of the course. Typically, your analysis will produce an artifact that you will describe and justify to your peers and teacher in Feature 5’s Research Council.
- Develop an argument for what you think are the major changes from your past science standards
- Brainstorm some ways in which you can use these shifts in your practice
Feature 4 – Compare Explanations to Scientific Knowledge
The research associated with teaching and learning science described in the course is further presented in Feature 4. In addition to demonstrating a thorough understanding of the knowledge of the content, you will be asked to compare and contrast your explanation from Feature 3.
- Explore the described major conceptual shifts of the Next Generation Science Standards
- Compare what you think are major shifts with the documented major conceptual shifts
Feature 5 – Communicate and Justify Explanations
Finally, Feature 5 of the course involves sharing and justifying your explanation and artifact from Feature 2 and 3 among your peers and with your instructor at Research Council. The culminating activity of the course is to reflect on the Big Question of Feature 1 and synthesize your understanding by using your collected evidence to compare and contrast your ideas with those of your peers and teacher.
- Share your comparison from Feature 4
- Critically evaluate the comparison made by other participants
- Describe how these shifts, both your discovered and the documented shifts, can be used to inform your classroom practice
