Why OpenSciEd?

OpenSciEd creates free, high quality, NGSS-aligned science materials and outstanding professional learning support that empowers educators to inspire all students with the beauty and wonder of science. One classroom at a time, OpenSciEd is proving that when given the opportunity to experience high quality curriculum facilitated by teachers who have had the professional learning they deserve, all students can excel in science.

The OpenSciEd Instructional Model uses a storyline approach – a logical sequence of lessons that are motivated by students’ questions that arise from students’ interactions with phenomena.

To help teachers and students advance through a unit storyline, the instructional model takes advantage of five routines—activities that play specific roles in advancing the storyline with structures to help students achieve the objectives of those activities. The routines typically follow a pattern as students kick off a unit of study, investigate different questions they have, put the pieces together from those investigations, and then problematize the next set of questions to investigate. 

In OpenSciEd classrooms, students learn science through discovery. Developed by leading science researchers and educators, our instructional model is designed to align with how students learn best. Our curriculum is phenomena-based and centers on student-led questioning, investigating, and problem-solving, with teachers supporting students as learning facilitators rather than lecturers. This approach fosters a classroom culture where everyone matters and is heard, building unique skills for educators and students and empowering them in their education journey.

Equitable instructional practices are central to the design of OpenSciEd instructional materials and professional learning. Our instructional and professional learning materials seek to surface and address inequities in the engagement and participation of historically underserved students in science learning, including those impacted by various forms of systemic discrimination. 

We call on all educators to provide materials that bring forward and value all students’ voices and surface the conversations that will empower students to own their education and futures.

OpenSciEd brings together leading science researchers and educators to create a curriculum that is aligned to how students learn best. Guided by the belief that high quality educational materials should be available to everyone, all OpenSciEd materials are open-source, also known as open educational resources. They are free for all educators and students to use — and can be shared, redistributed, and freely adapted into customized curricula. We build upon OpenSciEd materials to accommodate students’ needs, cultures, languages, and local contexts.

OpenSciEd’s curriculum was developed to support all students in meeting the vision for science literacy described in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Our Design Specifications guide our materials development process and implementation support.