Join us to learn how OpenSciEd materials can help you build science learning experiences anchored in compelling phenomena and meaningful community and global problems. This PLI will introduce you to […]

Join us to see how OpenSciEd’s materials can help build science learning experiences anchored in compelling phenomena and in important community and global problems. OpenSciEd high school uses a storyline approach that emphasizes coherence from the student perspective. Participants will explore the curricular routines, discourse strategies, and comprehensive assessment systems that support equitable participation. TAKEAWAYS: […]

This session will outline work that Saint Paul Public Schools, BSCS Science Learning, and OpenSciEd have done to adapt OpenSciEd materials to support standards implementation and district equity goals. The session will explain key considerations and modifications needed to align materials with domain-specific standards, while maintaining curricular coherence from the students’ perspective. The team will […]

This unit helps students develop an understanding of the elements of evolution by natural selection and learn to apply that understanding to protect populations endangered by urbanization. Students learn through modeling, reading, and discussing adaptations of published scientific studies of nonhuman populations impacted by urbanization. They develop criteria for designing urban systems that protect populations […]

OpenSciEd HS’s reversible reactions unit on ocean chemistry has three unique foci: 1) engineering, 2) math with scale, proportion, and quantity, and 3) relevance to students. Students use stoichiometry and acid-base reactions to make sense and design solutions to prevent oyster die off. TAKEAWAYS: This unit supports students as they figure out understandings of reversible reactions […]

Explore the comprehensive assessment system that accompanies the OpenSciEd high school program. This comprehensive system includes opportunities for formative, summative, self, and peer assessment. The session will guide participants through the multiple assessment types and will explore in-depth electronic exit tickets and transfer tasks. Electronic exit tickets give teachers an opportunity to formatively assess students' […]

OpenSciEd HS engages students with complex, flexible, and purposeful mathematical thinking to meet the NGSS. We illustrate how NGSS practices 4 and 5 (analyzing data and math) are central and […]

When using OpenSciEd, it is a challenge to help students not only figure out science ideas, but how to work together and support each other. This panel of classroom teachers will explore how to build community in order to help students build rich scientific understandings. TAKEAWAYS: Participants will understand how community agreements and other strategies […]

Expand the socio-ecological thinking you bring to science phenomena using frameworks from Learning in Places. Experience examples of how these frameworks are part of the OpenSciEd biology course. TAKEAWAYS: Recognize […]

Over the past decade, researchers and practitioners have been calling for more attention to coherence from the student perspective as a key part of curriculum design. This type of coherence arises when students see what they do in the science classroom as productive for addressing meaningful questions and problems. A curriculum that is coherent from […]

Many students experience high school science without considering the interconnectedness of different domains. By leveraging the Energy and Matter crosscutting concept and uniting this lens with a forces perspective, we consider how a Matter-Energy-Forces (MEF) triangle can help students apply core principles of physical science across multiple domains. We explore the MEF triangle’s use in […]