Prior to the NGSS, science standards looked at knowledge in isolation. To understand if students “knew” or “understood” what was taught in class, teacher assessments centered around the content that students had been explicitly taught in class.
A Framework for Future Scientists
Scientists and engineers don’t use knowledge in isolation. A scientist’s job does not stop at finding the slope of a graph or writing a CER statement for something they already understand. So, why are we training students to use skills and knowledge in isolation?!? To help prepare students for the future, researchers created “A Framework for K12 Science Education“. In creating this educational framework, they concluded that knowledge is only a small part of Science!
If we’re genuinely preparing students for the future, we need to prepare them to do more than understand facts. It is not only about building future scientists; we’re preparing students who can figure things out for themselves, and they must do more than “represent” their knowledge in CER statements or graphs.
Sensemaking
This is where sensemaking comes in. Students take what they’ve learned and use it to make sense of something new.
Making sense of the world requires more than just skill in isolation. Students apply knowledge and make sense of the world through the SEP, making it a practice rather than just a “skill” in isolation.
Practices vs Skills
For example, using Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning to explain something a student already knows is a skill, and identifying trends in a graph is also a skill. However, if a student understands erosion and writes a CER statement to explain how something else is eroding, they’re making sense of the concept THROUGH the SEP. Suppose a student understands adaptation and can use data sets to explain how evolutionary pressures drove changes in a new ecosystem. In that case, they’re also making sense of the phenomena THROUGH the SEP.
Lenses for Viewing Science
Students use the Cross-Cutting Concepts as a lens for looking at new phenomena. Suppose students have seen patterns in relationships between variables from other lessons on forces and motion. They can then use that lens to look at new phenomena like ocean acidification in a novel data set. Students may learn how structure affects function from the concepts learned in Life Science and then use that lens to analyze new phenomena in Chemistry.
Application-centric
3-Dimensional standards include applied knowledge, skills, and lenses to approach phenomena, which scientists and engineers do!
The three dimensions come together to give students a more authentic experience in science by having them apply their knowledge through the SEPs, the DCIs, and the Cross-Cutting Concepts.
Performance Expectations Bring it Together
You’ll see these three dimensions as Performance Expectations, as the DCI, the SEP, and the CCC are brought together to create performances that we can expect from students. Each dimension is purposefully recombined in different performance expectations so students can practice with each Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Idea, and Cross-Cutting Concept in new ways. The whole goal is to have students be able to make sense of something new, which we call sensemaking!
If you’d like to practice dissecting Performance Expectations, click here to download the activity for teachers or school administrators to examine a few standards and better understand how they come together.
