3. Science and Engineering Practices

Science and engineering practices are the tools that scientists utilize to investigate or experiment. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) removed the term Scientific Method from the written standards. Why is this... It is imperative to think of the practices as something that is done by a scientist. Each practice has its own method and sometimes the practices are combined to deliver an outcome to an investigation. This approach with the scientific method requires months of work and collection of information that goes beyond the classroom period of forty minutes. Also, the Next Generation Science Standards took a deliberate approach in the use of one practice within the written standard. It is very possible that it will take an extensive amount of time to utilize the practice within a particular standard. This also means that not every practice is utilized in every nuance of content in the standards. There are times in which standards are combined that involve more than one science and engineering practice in a unit or what NGSS terms a Story Line. The performance expectations would be without limits and arduous to cover if every item of content in science utilized all of the science and engineering practices.