Phenomenal GRC Lessons

Welcome to our Going 3-D with GRC website. This site is a collection of vetted, three-dimensional lessons aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards and state standards developed from the Framework for K-12 Science Education. The lessons were developed by teachers across districts and states utilizing local phenomena. The teachers who developed these lessons participate in professional development with Brett D. Moulding and Kenneth L. Huff over the past five years. Brett was on the committee that wrote the Framework for K-12 Science Education and a lead writer of the NGSS. Kenneth was also on the NGSS writing team and has spent the last 5 years applying these lessons in his classroom. If you have questions or suggestions about these lessons please contact Brett at BrettDMoudling@gmail.com.

Quick Link to 3D lessons by grade band: 

Elementary Lessons (K-5),    MS Lessons (6-8),    HS Lessons (9-12)

Why build phenomenon based lessons? 

Few things are more inspiring than watching a student ask “why?” — except, perhaps, seeing that student use their skills and knowledge to confidently and effectively seek an answer to their own questions to make sense of the world around them. Scientific literacy provides students with the tools to explain and evaluate the things they see, touch, and hear every day. A strong, coherent science education from grades K-12 where student engagement drives learning can help unlock their curiosity and foster science reasoning and problem solving skills, along with a life-long love of learning. 

Phenomena-based instruction is a primary feature of the three dimensions in the National Academies K-12 Framework for Science Education on which our new science standards were built.  A three-dimensional learning approach requires a thoughtful integration of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEP), Crosscutting Concepts (CCC), and Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) to explain the cause for how and why phenomena occur. 

Phenomena do not have to be phenomenal. A phenomenon is an observable occurrence or event that can be investigated to gather evidence to support a scientific explanation. Seeing your breath on a cold day, noticing that your voice sounds funny when you talk into a fan, or leaves changing color in the fall are all examples of natural phenomena. The phenomenon and level of understanding needed to explain it should be appropriate to the learning progression for the grade span. 

Phenomenon-based instruction is driven by student questions to fuel curiosity and encourage students to make sense of the world in which they live.  Choosing phenomena that students have experienced and can relate to provides a bridge for learning that allows for deeper conceptual understanding of the science behind the phenomenon. The learning  can  then transferred to explain other phenomena students have not yet experienced. Providing a structure through which students have focused opportunities to engage with phenomenon builds critical thinking and reasoning as shown in the model below. 

“When students understand that phenomena have causes, they are better prepared to seek evidence to support explanations; helping students see causes for phenomena about which they are curious is a powerful way to motivate learning.” -Brett Moulding-

By communicating their sense-making of the phenomenon through a model, students' thinking becomes visible so that the teacher has an authentic assessment tool  that communicates what the student knows at the time to inform instruction. 

One way to engage students in making sense of phenomenon is by using the  Gather, Reason, and Communicate (GRC) instructional framework. This student centered model  has utility for organizing instruction around the science and engineering practices as well as providing structure for students’ engagement with science phenomenon as shown below. 

Through this instructional framework, students use the science and engineering practices to gather information, gain understanding through reasoning, and communicate arguments for why or how their evidence supports their explanation.