NGSS Breakdown: The Space Station View

I thought I'd write out a bit of what I understand about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).  This is not even a birds-eye view of NGSS, it's the space-station view.  There are plenty of better reviews, but here's mine.

NGSS is based off of A Framework for K-12 Science Education, a brief 400 page explanation on how we need to be teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM, from Kindergarten to 12th grade.

NGSS is intended to be a benchmark for the science that all informed citizens must know.  Not everyone needs to know the clotting cascade but everyone should know how to interpret a graph and understand basic ecology.  Students interested in honors and AP courses for college transcripts can still take them, but all students must meet the minimum NGSS Standards.

NGSS is concerned with these three branches of science:

1. Earth Science - Earth & Universe, Earth's Systems, Earth and Human Activity
2. Physical Science - Matter & its Interactions, Motion/Stability, Energy, Waves
3. Life Science - Organic Structures, Ecosystems, Heredity, Evolution

NGSS Breakdown

NGSS delivery has 3 Dimensions:

1. Dimension 1: Science and Engineering Practices - This is concerned primarily with what all students must be able to Know and Do.
   There are 8 subtopics
1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
2. Developing and using models
3. Planning and carrying out investigations
4. Analyzing and interpreting data
5. Using mathematics and computational thinking
6. Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions) for engineering
7. Engaging in argument from evidence
8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
2. Dimension 2: Crosscutting Concepts - This is primarily concerned with Fundamental Questions and Bridging Concepts.  After all, you can't really teach biology without understanding basic earth and physical science.
   There are 7 subtopics
1. Patterns
2. Cause and effect: Mechanism and explanation
3. Scale, proportion, and quantity
4. Systems and System Models
5. Energy and Matter: Flows, cycles, and conservation
6. Structure and function
7. Stability and change
3. Dimension 3: Disciplinary Core Ideas -  This is concerned with Content delivered in a logical Progression. Here we get to specific science content.  In 1st grade, a student may learn about using their senses to tell whether something is warm or cool; in 11th grade, students may learn how to take the temperature of a substance using different thermal scales.
   There are 44 subtopics that I will not include here.  Take a look at how the core ideas are presented over a student's entire K-12 career: K-12 Core Disciplinary Ideas (.pdf)

Bozeman Biology has an excellent YouTube channel and a terrific website, BozemanScience.com, that offers a range of science-related videos.  Paul Anderson does a good job explaining NGSS and is in the process of producing individual videos on each aspect of the standards.  

I'm very optimistic about the state of science education once this is all rolled out.  At its core, NGSS works on leading students beyond data memorization and information regurgitation to critical thinking and problem solving.  The current No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards are quite long in the tooth and NGSS is coming.  ...eventually.  ...maybe in 5 years.

Sophomore Registration: Mixed Thoughts

Today's lesson allowed students a great deal of flexibility.  Most needed to finish gathering data for a lab, others worked on the analysis questions, and the rest worked on other homework.

Today was also sophomore registration.  This proved to be an unexpected distraction, but it was a great opportunity to talk to and learn about my students.  They are beginning to wrestle with how they're going to get to college.

Student teaching in a freshman honors biology class means most of the students are very driven.  Next year looms with their first AP courses sprinkled within a sea of honors classes.  I am firmly convinced that students need to challenge themselves and take as many honors and AP classes as they can manage. The students themselves are very driven to take the advanced courses, but sadly, are unclear as to the purpose.  Sure, to get into college; everyone knows that.  Then what?  None of the student I talked with knew what they wanted to do when they grew up.

A good college, a good career, a good retirement, and a good twilight of one's life is all very nice, but, for students, these are very distant and impersonal.

Students have time.  Rather than give advice on what will get them into a better college, I recommended things that would help them appreciate the world around them.  And, if that means taking a bunch of AP and honors class, then they should do it.  Sparking student interest seems more valuable than leaning on them to follow a particular career path or get into an elite college.

The Earl Grey Tempest: In Defense of the Pep-Rally

I accidentally found myself in the midst of a teapot, and oh, how the mighty tempest blew.

See, last Friday was a big pep-rally and students involved missed 3rd period.  It affected my class by removing 4 students in dance and cheer.  School-wide, about 100 students missed 3rd period.  After the rally, I found myself in a knot of teachers who were indignant that all of these students missed an entire period of academic instruction all for a 20 minute pep-rally.

I suppose that's true.  Each student missed 54 minutes of instruction time.  But, if we're going to help students become college- and career-ready, then we must instill the value of communication and help them realize that decisions have consequences that they might not like.

I don't know any college or career that demands that you be at work every day the doors are open.  There are procedures for taking a day off regardless of the reason.  The work must get done, but with good communication, there's no reason why anyone can't take a day off.  Even if you're sick or have a family emergency, there are ways of communicating and getting a shift covered.  This is real life.  This is how the real world works.

Every teacher has a method for dealing with students who miss class.  Students know they need to make up work.  Students, with their parents, need to be the ones making decisions about how they're involved in co-curricular activities.  Being involved in these things requires a sacrifice; sometimes that means coming into class during lunch or after school to make sure they get what they missed.  Demanding that students never miss classroom instruction for any non-academic reason is quite a disservice.

I'll leave this note here to remind future Mr. Davis that no, biology class is not the most important class to most of your students and a missed class will not condemn a person to destitution.  Biology class is a small piece of a larger mosaic of student education.  Education happens in the lab, on the field, on a dance floor, in anti-bullying clubs, in books, in the choir room, and just about anything else that students rub shoulders with people who care.

I did remind my fellow teachers that a handful of students missing 3rd period won't be any more work, it's no different than sports teams leaving early for a game, and despite academic classes' legitimate importance in the life of a student, they're not the only thing.

I got silence.  Then I was asked to leave the teapot.