Science Practice #9

NGSS instruction is largely dependent on language, and it may inadvertently exclude English Learners from full participation if steps aren't taken. Multilingual students have important insights to contribute to learning, and scientific communities greatly benefit from the diversity of thought and experience these students bring. Second language learners often have rich family and community practices and histories that can be leveraged to more deeply engage these students in STEM learning. This brief encourages teachers to keep "big ideas" in science grounded in everyday examples that are accessible to all learners.

STEM Teaching Tools are short, research-based pieces highlighting specific issues in science learning, instruction, and policy. This STEM Teaching Tool provides suggestions on centering place and relating to students' cultures and life/world perspectives and language. 

The NRC Framework and NGSS vision is that all students will have access to high-quality science learning opportunities and will be able to succeed in science. This teaching tool encourages teachers to notice sensemaking repertoires; consider students' diverse sensemaking as connecting to science practices; support sensemaking; and support students to use their sensemaking repertoires and experiences as critical tools in engaging with science practices. 

For the purposes of equity, it is crucial for science teaching to make meaningful connections to the cultural knowledge, experiences, and ways of knowing of students and their communities.

For STEM education to support all students in becoming STEM literate, instruction needs to broadly recognize who has done science, for what range of purposes, and how diversity enriches science.

This brief provides suggestions and resources to help teachers use justice-centered phenomena in science and engineering to engage students in phenomena. 

This brief identifies the issues and the recommended action steps to take in science classrooms to address intersectional justice.

A free, downloadable, book from the National Academies that provides the research base for all science education, K-12. In particular, for this practice, focus on the initial chapters and Part Three: Realizing the Vision.

This page provides interviews that highlight some of the unique literacy skills of STEM professionals and how they communicate in their day-to-day work. A detailed description of how educators could connect these interview clips to student lessons and professional learning can be found here. These ideas are organized by ELA anchor standards to support disciplinary literacy work.

This poster illustrates connections between Career Readiness and Disciplinary Literacy approaches at the classroom level, with suggestions about tapping into students' Areas of Interest within instruction.