NGSS Storylines - Paradigms for Teaching and Learning Physics

Introduction

Introductions / Quickwrite
- What are the prevailing paradigms of NGSS?
- What are NGSS Storylines?
- How do storylines help bundle Performance Expectations (PE), Science and Engineering Practices (SEP), Cross Cutting Concepts (CCC), and Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI)?
California Science Framework - 3-Course Model
California Science Framework - 4-Course Model
NGSS Storyline Generator
Storyline - "First Man"
- Phenomenon-based learning

What is a Storyline?

A storyline is a coherent sequence of lessons, in which each step is driven by students' questions that arise from their interactions with phenomena. A student's goal should always be to explain a phenomenon or solve a problem. At each step, students make progress on the classroom's questions through science and engineering practices, to figure out a piece of a science idea. Each piece they figure out adds to the developing explanation, model, or designed solution. Each step may also generate questions that lead to the next step in the storyline. Together, what students figure out helps explain the unit's phenomena or solve the problems they have identified. A storyline provides a coherent path toward building disciplinary core idea and crosscutting concepts, piece by piece, anchored in students' own questions. (ngssstoylines.org)

Often the importance of a particular problem or idea is clear to the teacher, but not to the students. For example, the teacher knows how learning about the cell will help with important biological questions; but for students, they are learning about cells because that's the title of the current chapter in the textbook. The teacher may know how a particular chemistry experiment will teach students something about conservation of matter; but to the students, they are doing the experiment because they are following the directions. In a storyline, students should be involved in co-constructing the question we are working on, and should see the activity as helping make progress on that question. In a storyline, the coherence is from the students' perspective, not just the teacher's.

Often the reason a particular problem or idea is important is clear to the teacher, but not to the students. For example, the teacher may know how a particular physics experiment will help understand something about conservation of physics, but to students, they are doing the experiment because they are following the directions. In a storyline, students should be involved in co-constructing the question we are working on, and should see the activity as helping make progress on that question. In a storyline, the coherence is from the students' perspective, not just the teacher's.

Bundling of Performance Expectations to tell a story

Collaborative Document

The Performance Expectations associated with the topic Energy help students formulate an answer to the question, “How is energy transferred and conserved?” The disciplinary core idea expressed in the Framework for PS3 is broken down into four sub-core ideas: (1) Definitions of Energy, (2) Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer, the (3) Relationship between Energy and Forces, and Energy in Chemical Process and Everyday Life.

- Energy is understood as quantitative property of a system that depends on the motion and interactions of matter and radiation within that system, and the total change of energy in any system is always equal to the total energy transferred into or out of the system.
- Students develop an understanding that energy at both the macroscopic and the atomic scale can be accounted for as either motions of particles or energy associated with the configuration (relative positions) of particles. In some cases, the energy associated with the configuration of particles can be thought of as stored in fields.
- Students also demonstrate their understanding of engineering principles when they design, build, and refine devices associated with the conversion of energy.
- The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect; systems and system models; energy and matter; and the influence of science, engineering, and technology on society and the natural world are further developed in the performance expectations associated with PS3.
- In these performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carry out investigations, using computational thinking, and designing solutions; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.

The Performance Expectations associated with the topic Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation are critical to understand how many new technologies work. As such, this disciplinary core idea helps students answer the question, “How are waves used to transfer energy and send and store information?” The disciplinary core idea in PS4 is broken down into (1) Wave Properties, (2) Electromagnetic Radiation, and (3) Information Technologies and Instrumentation. Students are able to apply understanding of how wave properties and the interactions of electromagnetic radiation with matter can transfer information across long distances, store information, and investigate nature on many scales.

- Models of electromagnetic radiation as either a wave of changing electric and magnetic fields or as particles are developed and used.
- Students understand that combining waves of different frequencies can make a wide variety of patterns and thereby encode and transmit information.
- Students also demonstrate their understanding of engineering ideas by presenting information about how technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.
- The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect; systems and system models; stability and change; interdependence of science, engineering, and technology; and the influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are highlighted as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.
- In the PS3 performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in asking questions, using mathematical thinking, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. (From NGSS Storylines)