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KSDE Science Education Newsletter

May 2019

KSDE ScienceEducation NewsletterMay 2019
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Cross-State Professional Learning: MINK Webinar Series

Check out resources from the Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas professional development collaboration held this past semester.


The Kansas team led the last session about 3D assessments with a lot of great information.


Find more information about each topic and links to past sessions can be found on the website (recordings and resources linked for post viewing).

State Science Assessment: Results Available May 6
Please contact your building or district testing coordinator for support to access your state science assessment results.
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Webinar Recording: Reaching All Students in Science

Don't miss the recording of Reaching All Students in Science, a 30-minute equity-focused webinar presented by Achieve. In the webinar, Vanessa dives into four key features of equity in the classroom: relevant and engaging phenomena, asset-based thinking, student agency and identity, and accessibility.

Passing the Sniff Test: Curriculum Alignment Claims
As science materials aligned to the NGSS become more readily available, it's important to closely examine the claims publishers make, and ensure there's evidence for high-quality science lessons and materials.
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NGS Navigators: A podcast about all things NGSS

As you begin to make summer plans, I wanted to share this great podcast covering topics related to the Kansas Science Standards you can enjoy over the summer.


Spotlight:

Episode 009 Storylines & Driving Question Boards

Host Margaret O´Sullivan sits with Holly Hereau. Holly Hereau has been teaching high school science since 2004. In addition to teaching, Holly works as an NGSX facilitator and a Next Generation Science Storylines consultant. In this episode, Holly tells us about her shift to teaching with storylines. She provides helpful tips and resources for teachers looking to use storylines and driving question boards in their NGSS classroom.

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Creating Science Learning Experiences: Learners Receiving Special Education Services

STEM Teaching Tools: Practice Brief 59


The Framework presents three-dimensional science learning as a vision of equitable science education for all learners. In order to achieve this justice-oriented goal, instruction must be designed in ways that enable multiple opportunities and avenues for engaging in deep and meaningful sense-making about the natural and designed worlds, rather than creating cognitive, physical, behavioral, neurological, developmental, and emotional barriers. Equitable science learning environments must include activities that foreground multiple ways of knowing, doing, and expressing understanding.
Science Assessment Project: Achieve
Three-dimensional science standards raise several questions about how to monitor student progress toward those learning goals. What does it look like to ask students to demonstrate progress toward three-dimensional standards?
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K-State Summer K-12 Science Education Courses

Teachers of STEM Reaching All Students: Innovation in Science and Engineering Instruction, and Assessment: KSU College of Education - Science Education (K-12) Summer Courses


EDCI 786 Science and Engineering Teaching in Urban Schools

Section C – Reference No. 11022

MTWH 8:30 – 12:00 p.m. – 3 Credit Hours

June 10 – June 27

(Online option available, contact Dr. Kimberly Staples, kstaples@ksu.edu)


EDCI 886 Section ZA - Assessment in Science Education (Online)

3 Credit Hours - June 17 - July 5 (Course Registration: global.k-state.edu/courses)

NSTA: Check Out Grant Opportunities
Select Events/Fellowships from the Event Category Menu
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New STEM Teaching Tool: Designing Productive Uncertainty Into Investigations

STEM Teaching Tool: Practice Brief 60


We want students to engage from the earliest ages in science and engineering practices with sincere curiosity and purpose. Science investigations can be viewed as “working through uncertainty.” However, 3D instructional materials often try to support engagement in science practices by making them very explicit and scaffolding the process to make it easy to accomplish—arguably, too easy. An alternative approach that emphasizes productive uncertainty focuses on how uncertainty might be strategically built into learning environments so that students establish a need for the practices and experience them as meaningful ways of developing understandings.