Science

These high-quality, NGSS-aligned science lesson plans are built on phenomena meaningful to rural students. They include plans for middle school science, as well as high school biology, Earth science, chemistry, and physics.

This toolkit lays important groundwork to help teachers successfully enact motivation design principles (MDPs) in support of student motivation and engagement in science. It addresses the reciprocal relationship between motivationally supportive teaching and equitable science instruction and provides guidance on general classroom organization, routines, policies, and climate considerations that provide a vital foundation for supporting student motivation. The toolkit contains resources for the five MDPs: belonging, confidence, learning orientation, autonomy, and relevance. It describes connections between enacting the MDPs and delivering instruction based on the NGSS and outlinines the reciprocal relationship between supporting student motivation and implementing phenomenon-centered science instruction, integrating crosscutting concepts, and promoting the eight science and engineering practices from the NGSS.

This toolkit lays important groundwork to help teachers successfully enact motivation design principles (MDPs) in support of student motivation and engagement in science. It addresses the reciprocal relationship between motivationally supportive teaching and equitable science instruction and provides guidance on general classroom organization, routines, policies, and climate considerations that provide a vital foundation for supporting student motivation. The toolkit contains resources for the five MDPs: belonging, confidence, learning orientation, autonomy, and relevance. It describes connections between enacting the MDPs and delivering instruction based on the NGSS and outlinines the reciprocal relationship between supporting student motivation and implementing phenomenon-centered science instruction, integrating crosscutting concepts, and promoting the eight science and engineering practices from the NGSS.

This toolkit lays important groundwork to help teachers successfully enact motivation design principles (MDPs) in support of student motivation and engagement in science. It addresses the reciprocal relationship between motivationally supportive teaching and equitable science instruction and provides guidance on general classroom organization, routines, policies, and climate considerations that provide a vital foundation for supporting student motivation. The toolkit contains resources for the five MDPs: belonging, confidence, learning orientation, autonomy, and relevance. It describes connections between enacting the MDPs and delivering instruction based on the NGSS and outlinines the reciprocal relationship between supporting student motivation and implementing phenomenon-centered science instruction, integrating crosscutting concepts, and promoting the eight science and engineering practices from the NGSS.

This curriculum workbook details a design process for engaging elementary students in citizen science investigations that are relevant to their school district’s curriculum and school site. The citizen science guide is designed to help users critically examine potential citizen science projects to determine whether they can be easily adapted for use in a classroom curriculum and schoolyard setting.

The ASET Toolkit is a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) planning toolkit designed to help science educators plan lessons and units that integrate the 3 dimensions outlined in the Framework (NRC, 2012). The toolkit includes: 1) Dialogic tools that foster and support deepening awareness and understanding of how to make the significant shifts in instruction, learning, and formative assessment required by the new science reform documents, and 2) Analytical tools for revising existing and/or developing new curriculum that better supports 3-dimensional teaching, learning, and formative assessment of student learning.

With the LRHE curriculum, student learning is used in the generation of solutions to local problems, such as increasing indigenous populations of insects within local urban neighborhoods. The learning approach—solutioning—emphasizes learning life science content through the NGSS science and engineering practices.

Do you want to learn more about complex ecological systems, nature-culture relations, and field-based science? These storyline frameworks are designed for educators working in a variety of places (community-based organizations of all types, homes, schools). Each framework provides in-depth, research-based information about its topic, as well as a variety of appendices that help educators put their new learning into practice. These include vignettes that show the ideas in practice and a self-assessment that educators can use to reflect on their current and future thinking and practice.

This collection offers K-12 curricula, activity guides, and other resources to support hands-on, inquiry-based investigations of the ecosystems and organisms around us. Themes include: Hudson River ecology, urban ecosystems, schoolyard ecology, biodiversity, water and watersheds, and data exploration and nature of science. Additional resources are available for home and distance learning.

StoryMaker is a powerful learning platform developed by PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs to build the next generation of media creators through media-making projects. These lesson plans and activities provide a strong foundation of storytelling and journalism skills to help students gain confidence, find their voice, and discover their place in the world.