"The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.

A goal for developing the NGSS was to create a set of research-based, up-to-date K–12 science standards. These standards give local educators the flexibility to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students’ interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship."

The NGSS call for a three-dimensional approach to K–12 science instruction. This represents a significant transition from previous state standards. That’s why effective implementation demands a great deal of collaboration and patience among states, districts, schools, teachers, and students.

Thoughtful and coordinated approaches to implementation will enable educators to inspire future generations of scientifically literate students. That is the vision of the NGSS. This website provides a range of high-quality resources that empower educators, administrators, parents, and the general public to help bring this vision to life.

Last year, all TESG classes participated in the September 2019 Global Climate Strike in downtown Greensboro as a part of the Global Week For Our Future. Our students got to be a a part of a "series of international strikes and protests to demand action be taken to address climate change", an initiviative that reached 4,500 locations in 150 countries.

To prepare for this event, students learned about environmental & climate justice in all of their classes. In Science, we focused on pollution, mapping, ecosystems, empirical evidence, cycling of matter, and the creation of design solutions for common environmental problems.

Although a in-person climate strike will not likely be possible this trimester, students will cover the above topics and use this information to demand change through various small-group projects that aim to inform the public on issues of climate change, damage to ecosystems, plant and animal endangerment, & environmental racism.

Because of the various conversations surrounding race, discrimination, ancestry, and phenotype that are discussed in ethnic studies, students form a natural curiosity for genetics.

Why are there differing skin tones? Who is genetically related? How is ancestry traced through saliva? What is race? What is ethnicity? Why are common facial features seen in communities? Why are some groups predisposed to getting certain diseases? How do animals form camouflage? How do some animals survive and others don't?

Much of what we do regarding identity in other classes has to do with who we are inside and how that shapes the ways we can navigate and enjoy the world around us. In science, identity work is all about genotype and phenotype and how those two things, in combination with societal factors, influences our lives.

We study DNA, learn about family trees, complete simulations meant to demonstrate natural selection, gather evidence about genetic diversity in populations, sexual and asexual reproduction, Punnett squares, & chromosomes.

As a culminating project, students combine their ethnic studies knowledge of the social creation of race for political purposes with their scientific understanding of ethnicity, genotype, & phenotype to gain a more holistic understanding of the racialized world we are living in and how it got to be this way.

For more information on how genetics is shaping race conversations in America, check out this article from Harvard University: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/