Next Generation Science Standards and the Environmental Principles and Concepts

Engaging in authentic research through a participatory science project can allow students to express their understanding in different ways and deepen their engagement across content standards. California adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013, which called for an instructional shift focused on inquiry and systems thinking rather than the learning of discrete facts. In 2018 the California Department of Education (CDE) called for the Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs) to be integrated into all future frameworks. The EP&Cs are addressed through multiple academic content areas provided from the CDE Content Standards. 

Utilizing the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science’s YCCS framework throughout the materials provides opportunities for students to engage with all three dimensions of NGSS. Students learn the disciplinary core idea as outlined in their grade level through the practice of analyzing and interpreting data, and gain a deeper understanding of the cross cutting concepts of systems and system models. They can access English Language Arts content on a more complex level because they see how their own observations and research are connected to their reading and writing. With this deeper understanding of how the ecosystems around them function, they begin to also understand the EP&Cs as they look at human impacts and ways they are able to take action and make change.