NGSS
NGSS stands for Next Generation Science Standards. These new standards were recently adopted by the state of California in alignment with the Common Core State standards for Math and Language Arts. The standards were designed in a way that is geared more toward real world science than our previous standards were. Students get a better look at what real scientists and engineers actually do including how they solve problems and develop solutions. For middle school, we use an integrated model for NGSS in which students will get a little bit of each of the disciplinary core ideas at each grade level. This gives students a better picture of how all of the sciences (and engineering) work together in a "big picture" sense.
THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE LEARNING
There are three equally important, distinct dimensions to learning science included in the NGSS: Scientific and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas. The NGSS connect all three dimensions. To prepare students for success in college and 21st century careers, the NGSS also connect scientific principles to real-world situations, allowing for more engaging and relevant instruction to explore complicated topics.
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PRACTICES
Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. The practices better explain and extend what is meant by “inquiry” in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. Students engage in practices to build, deepen, and apply their knowledge of core ideas and crosscutting concepts.
DISCIPLINARY CORE IDEAS
Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.
CROSSCUTTING CONCEPTS
These concepts that can be applied across all domains of science. They provide a framework that helps students understand the interrelated nature of scientific concepts across domains. Consider the crosscutting concept of systems and system models. It is useful to understand the whole of an ecosystem as well as the parts that make it up in order to understand how the ecosystem functions.
Hart will be following the Preferred Integrated Model
The California Next General Science Standards (CA NGSS) defines two possible progressions for middle school: the preferred Integrated Model which interweaves science disciplines in a developmentally appropriate progression and the Discipline Specific Model where each grade level focuses in depth on a different science discipline.
The two models differ only in the sequence; every student is expected to meet each middle school performance expectation by the end of grade. “Sequence” here refers to which course (sixth, seventh, or eighth grade) a particular Performance Expectation (PE) is mastered; this CA Science Framework makes no requirements about the order in which PEs are taught within a given year.
Hart will be following the Preferred Integrated Model. Click HERE to read about what topic are covered in the Seventh Grade Preferred Integrated Model.