Phenomena-Driven Storylines

Session Goals and Outcomes: 

• Explore what makes an effective phenomena or problem.

• Reflect on and Apply how the 3 Dimensions help to build a conceptual flow of a unit.

• Use the STEELS standards to brainstorm how to plan for an effective and coherent unit of instruction.

Session Outline:

Opening & NGSS Innovations Recap (30 min)

Quality anchoring phenomenon (45 min)

Break (15 min)

Finding Conceptual Flow & Coherence (1.5 hours)

Lunch (1 hour)

Using Standards to Plan (Bundling) (1.5 hours)

Break (15 min)

Anchoring with Phenomena (45 min)

Team Debrief (30 min)

Closure (15 min)

Participant Testimony: 

"My biggest takeaway from this session was that in order to have students engaged and driving the learning, teachers must plan and find rich and relevant phenomena that allow students to explore the standards."

"The goal we're moving to is more student driven and less teacher led.  The teacher's job is more as a facilitator and the teacher should provide the right resources/guiding questions to help the students create their own learning."

"What I took from this session was that ee should be working toward building better real world experiences for our students, through which they can gain thorough, 'gapless' understanding of the science concepts."