Expand your teaching through travel.
Who is invited? Are you an educator? You’re invited! Formal and informal educators, elementary, middle, and high school, pre-service, and retired teachers are all welcome! The trip will lean towards Earth science and biology, but teachers of any subject can…
Phenomena-based learning is a cornerstone of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). It encourages students to ask questions, think critically, and connect classroom concepts to the real world. However, finding the “right” phenomenon to inspire curiosity and align with specific…
Outside of changing the lives of children (which, yes is great and I fully support) the best part of being a teacher is the schedule! If you’re like me, you spend much of your school year dreaming of the next…
Purchase Glacier NP Storyline What is a Storyline? An NGSS Earth science storyline is an intentionally sequenced series of lessons that begins with a phenomenon, encourages student investigations to discover findings, and assesses student learning in three dimensions. Yes, three…
What are Student-Developed Driving Questions? You know those objectives and “I can…” statements that administrators love to see posted in the front of your classroom? Well, I’m here to tell you they’re not necessary in a classroom aligned with the…
Phenomena has become quite the buzz word now that many states have adopted Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The transition to a new set of standards has also brought a transformation to how we plan our lessons and how our…
Many of our students have not had opportunities to travel to national parks. Even more, many students aren’t aware of the natural beauty and phenomena that exist throughout the United States. I would love to provide opportunities for all of…
Backstory of Writing NGSS Aligned Lesson Plans Next Generation Science Standards are not just an updated set of standards. NGSS is a transformation in how we teach and how our students learn. To fully embrace the transformation, we need to…
Why do good teachers struggle when using NGSS storylines? They haven’t committed to the teacher mindset shift necessary to transition to NGSS. Teachers can use a checklist to incorporate components of a quality NGSS storyline. Students experience phenomenon first and…
The backbone of NGSS aligned units follow the 5E Lesson framework. We’ll follow a step-by-step process to create a rigorous NGSS aligned lesson that engages students in doing science and thinking like a scientist. Registration for the challenge is open until February 19, so act…