Instructional unit overview for science
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Designing Units and Lessons
Select lab experiments, readings, discussions, lectures, and other learning activities based on what students should learn and explicitly link them together in the unit. One example architecture for designing integrated instructional units is the BSCS 5E model, explained in Translating the NGSS for Classroom Instruction.
Integrated Instructional Sequence: BSCS 5E Model
Work Backward
To create lessons for your classroom that build on the Next Generation Science Standards, start from the end and work backward. We suggest beginning the process by selecting a particular performance expectation (or two) from the standards and designing a series of lessons and activities that bridge that expectation with the knowledge and skills students will already have in place at the beginning of instruction. (Ultimately, a unit of instruction would cover at least portions of several different performance expectations, bu
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Next Generation Science Storylines - A team of science educators from Northwestern University in partnership with K-12 teachers has developed sample elementary, middle school and high school storylines.
Next Generation Science Storylines has developed a Storyline Design Toolkit which includes instructional routines for developing and implementing units of instruction that are grounded in phenomenon-based instruction.
Ambitious Science Teaching was developed by the University of Washington to provide tools and resources that support rigorous science instruction at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. This site provides classroom video examples and educator-developed lessons. There are also tools for planning and scaffolding instruction.
Appendix L of the NGSS provides grade-specific connections of the science standards to the mathematics standards.
Appendix M of the NGSS provides grade-specific connections of the science
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How to Use the 5E Model in Your Science Classroom
Try to recall the last science class you taught. It probably had many components over the course of 50 minutes, such as a film, a mini-lecture, an assessment, discussion, or a demonstration. What were all the components? Did your students discuss a question in small groups? Was it a whole-class discussion? Did you introduce a new concept? In what beställning did you introduce these components? How did you decide what came first? What fryst vatten the optimal order of activities in an inquiry-based science classroom?
Engage Students’ Curiosity
Teaching science using an inquiry approach requires instructional planning that encourages students to engage their curiosity to ask questions, explore solutions to socio-scientific issues, use evidence-based explanations to justify their reasoning, elaborate on possible effects, evaluate their findings, and predict potential outcomes based on different variables. In inquiry science, students are cogni